Welcome to Enjoying the Journey with Evangelist Scott Pauli.

Today we are on a journey through Scripture.

We hope you'll join us as we make 66 stops through each book of the Word of God.

The Lord Jesus said to his followers that the Spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Are you ever surprised at how spiritual you can be one moment and how fleshly you can be the next?

How you can walk in victory and sense the presence of God, and then in the very next moment, have the most awful thoughts, say the most

awful things. How is that possible? May I say to you, that's not new at all. As a matter of fact,

you see that sad cycle repeated over and over again in the example of the children of Israel.

We've come in our study journeying through

scripture to the book of judges. Now you remember in our last study we journeyed

through Joshua. Joshua was full of victory but judges is full of defeat. In Joshua

there was progress but in judges decline. In Joshua faith but in judges unbelief. In Joshua joy but in judges decline, in Joshua faith, but in judges unbelief, in Joshua, joy, but in judges, sorrow, in Joshua, freedom, but in judges bondage. Does that sound familiar to you? Doesn't it sound like the great struggle between the flesh and spirit in your own life. At one moment we're heavenly minded,

it seems, and the next moment we're earthly minded. Why do we move from Joshua to judges? Why do we

go from such victory and blessing in the land of Canaan following the Lord to such defeat

and such conflict in the book of judges? Well, the answer is given twice in the book

of judges. The key verse is actually given in two different places, both near the end of the book.

The first is in Judges chapter 17 and verse 6, where the Bible says, in those days, there was no

king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

And then, interestingly enough, that is repeated, almost verbatim at the very last verse of the book.

Judges chapter 21, verse 25 says, in those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

You see, after the death of Joshua, the people quit obeying God. They had had one king,

and that king was the Lord. They had been a theocracy. God was the one ruling and reigning over them.

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