Friday, November 17, 2023[1]
After that
generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge
the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.
The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of
Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had
brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the
gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord.
They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of
Ashtoreth. This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel,
so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned
them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist
them. Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought
against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the
people were in great distress. Judges 2:10-15
And I heard a voice from the altar,
saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and
just.” Revelation 16:7
The justice system in America is
arguably skewed at times, as is every other system created by humankind. A
statement attributed to Winston Churchill is: Democracy is the
worst form of government ever created…with the exception of every other form of
government. With all due respect
to the esteemed Mr. Churchill, there is one justice system that is true and
just; its righteousness is never failing! That system, of course, is the
judgments of God.
Joshua led the nation of Israel to
conquer the Promised Land after Moses’ death. They occupied it under the sole-leadership
of God (a theocracy) until Joshua died. Then a new generation decided
that serving Jehovah was outdated and old-school. They wanted to be like
the other nations and left God in the dust.
For Israel, bad became worse.
Their strength as a nation disappeared. Their military was never
enough. Their infrastructures became compromised; superstructures and
resources were hacked and stolen, and no leader could be trusted. The
whole nation was in severe distress.
Does that sound familiar? I know it is dangerous to insert “America”
into any prophecy or Biblical scenario, but when the shoe fits it is
appropriate to wear it. The trend in our culture is to trust in an idea of
America as inherently good and all-powerful. The problem in believing
such is that we wind up attributing the nature of God to a national
identity. America is not, has never been, and will never be…GOD!
The identity of a nation consists of the nature and character of the people who
make up that nation at any point in time. According to Scripture (which
has yet to be proven wrong), the character and nature of humans is corrupt, and
has been so ever since Eden. This is a fallen world…and, despite the
flag-waving that has most of us rallying around the stars and stripes, fallenness
is our heritage…prone to wander; prone to leave the God we love. And leave God behind we have…for the
pragmatism of bigger stock portfolios, harsher conversations, and a national
profile of yell louder to win the argument. And we do so at a great cost!
For You Today
The distress of God’s justice
rolled-down on the heads of those who led Israel after Joshua passed. I
am not a prophet in the sense of being able to foretell the future, but I am
student enough of history and Scripture to sense that we are at harvest time,
and what we have been sowing, we shall certainly reap!
Let us be wise and plant seeds of justice, mercy, and walking humbly
with our God, while
we pray it is not too late.
There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons
in the Rocky Road library.
Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com
Images without citation are in public domain or cited
via weblinks.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
[1] This devotion originally appeared on Rocky Road as The Distress of Justice, November 16, 2017 (with updates)
