Judges
chapter 2 reminds us of God’s unfailing faithfulness and our
susceptibility to the temptations around us. The chapter begins with
another mention of “The
angel of the Lord“.
This is no ordinary angel.
He accepts worship, He declares Himself to be God Almighty and He
proclaims judgment. This
is what the scholars
call a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. The Lord reminds
the Israelites, “I
brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to
give to your forefathers and I said, ‘I will never break My
covenant with you and you shall not make a covenant with the people
of this land’… yet you have disobeyed Me“.
We then read, after the Lord had spoken these things to all the
Israelites, “The
people wept aloud“.
They even named the place “Bokim” which means “weepers”.
Sadly, all too often, weeping is not the same as true repentance.
Repentance requires a turning away from your rebellion. It requires
a change in behavior and attitude. Tears of regret are not enough.
True tears of repentance are caused by the pain we have caused our
loving Father in Heaven and ALWAYS lead to a changed heart.
Of
this generation of Israelites, we read, “Another
generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord, nor what He had done
for Israel“.
Here is the passion of my life. I fear for the next generation that
is growing up in a society that is increasingly secular, where the
very mention of
“God” in
school is cause for a lawsuit. These devotions are for my children.
That they may know the grace that God has shown to their dad and the
intimate relationship He desires to have with each of them
individually. That no matter what they do, or what they say, they
can receive complete forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ by simply asking in faith. Hear the lesson God gives us from
the Israelites, “The
Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.
They forsook the Lord, the God of their forefathers… and worshipped
various gods… they provoked the Lord to anger. In His anger
against the Israelites, He handed them over to raiders who plundered
them“.
Interesting, but these ‘Baals” were gods of prosperity,
fertility, love and sex. These are some of the very things that turn
our hearts from God today. Are any of these raiders trying to
plunder you?
God,
true to His nature, does not give up on His people. “Then
the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these
raiders“.
But listen to the sorrow in these words, “Yet
they would not listen to their judges and prostituted themselves to
other gods and worshipped them“.
Again and again, “the
judge saved them out of the hands of their enemy… the Lord had
compassion on them… but when the judge died, the people returned to
the ways even more corrupt than their fathers“.
Finally, God declares, “Because
this nation has violated My covenant… and not listened to Me, I
will no longer drive out from before them, the nations Joshua left…
I will use them to test the Israelites. The Lord allowed those
nations to remain“.
You and I also have a free will. God continues to give us the
option to choose salvation through Christ, or trust in our own
goodness. Revelation 22:17
says to
all, “The
Spirit and the bride
say, ‘Come!’ And let all who hear say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is
thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift
of the water of Life“.