Friday, January
12, 2018
Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from
their attackers. Yet Israel did not
listen to the judges but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods. How quickly they turned away from the path of
their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge over
Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies
throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the
Lord took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. But when the judge died, the people returned
to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They went after other gods, serving and
worshiping them. And they refused to
give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
So the Lord burned with anger against Israel. He said, “Because these people have violated
my covenant, which I made with their ancestors, and have ignored my commands, I
will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. I did this to test Israel—to see whether or
not they would follow the ways of the Lord as their ancestors did.” That is why the Lord left those nations in place.
He did not quickly drive them out or
allow Joshua to conquer them all.
Judges
2:16-23(NLT)
A ten year old boy checked
out the Baptist churches and was really impressed when he saw, for the first
time, a baptism by immersion. He was
greatly interested in it, and the next morning proceeded to baptize the
family’s three cats in the bathtub. The kitten bore it very well, and so did the
young cat, but the old family cat was a rebel; it struggled with the boy,
clawed and scratched at him, and finally got away. With considerable effort he caught it again
and proceeded with the ceremony.
But she acted worse than
ever, tore at him, spit, and scratched his hands and face. This was not going as well as the worship
service down at the Baptist Church. Finally,
after barely getting her fur splattered with water, the budding evangelist let
go of the ornery old cat. As she ran
away he hollered in disgust: "Fine…BE
a Methodist."
Every time I read God’s
account of the human family (us) in Scripture (and it is US even though we
try to distance ourselves and say it was THEM)…I have that baptizing
a cat image…stubborn, stubborn, and stubborn!
But the verse that really
grabs me in this particular passage is:
But when the judge died, the people returned to their
corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They went after other gods, serving and
worshiping them. And they refused to
give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Judges 2:19(NLT)
Every time God put a
leader in front of the people, a leader that had the sense to point God’s
people to the one true God, they followed.
But when that leader passed off the scene they went back to being
stubborn and evil.
The writer of Proverbs had
a commentary on this kind of behavior:
As a dog returns to
its vomit, so a fool
repeats his foolishness. Proverbs 26:11(NLT)
It’s hard to miss the
message in this; when we refuse to let go of our stubborn ways, we refuse to
actually BE God’s children, no matter how much we may SAY
we belong to Him.
For You
Today
It would
be a good practice to look back regularly…like every day…over all the ways God
has rescued and blessed you. And then go
live like a blessed child of God.
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