The Source of Strife?
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Judges 10:11 to Israel… "Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will see you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress."
God Asks Us: What is the source of strife? (quarrels, fights, war, murder etc.)
jne: What led to Israel being distressed by foreign nations? God had instructed each Israelite tribe to completely destroy the wicked people who lived in their appointed part of the promised land. They did so, but only partially. Rather than truly conquering the land, they let the land conquer them. They followed the gods, the lifestyles of the people they did not conquer. They sought the prosperity and pleasures of the people they should have conquered. In their moral weakness they were easy prey to foreign invaders. In the midst of their oppression they called out to God to save them. God is very patient, but His patience is not without limit. So, He reminded them of the history of God's faithfulness to rescue them. Then with the little word "yet," God reminded them of the real source of their predicament. They tended to assume that their troubles were the result of God's slowness to rescue. So God reminds them that their "forsaking God" was the real source of their troubles. The only thing that really got their attention (and ours) is to let their idolatrous choices play out to their natural end. The stories of the Judges ends with God's people living with the consequences of "everyone doing what is right in their own eyes." Today we call it "learning the hard way." What will it take for me, for you, to learn that forsaking God's way for my way or the world's way always ends with distress which the gods of this world can never fix. In such a situation it may seem as if "God sees us no more," but in reality He truly sees and knows that the only thing that will get our attention is for Him to let us see the destructive result of following gods who are no God at all. There is only One God Who can truly save us from the world and from ourselves. By the way, Jesus never asked Christians to destroy our enemies, He commanded us to love them by demonstrating and telling them of God's ability to conquer and forgive our sin by the death and life of Jesus. John tells us what God was telling His people through the Judges: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world -- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life -- is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with the desires but whoever does the will of God abides forever." (1John 2:15-17)
Judges 10:11 to Israel… "Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will see you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress."
God Asks Us: What is the source of strife? (quarrels, fights, war, murder etc.)
jne: What led to Israel being distressed by foreign nations? God had instructed each Israelite tribe to completely destroy the wicked people who lived in their appointed part of the promised land. They did so, but only partially. Rather than truly conquering the land, they let the land conquer them. They followed the gods, the lifestyles of the people they did not conquer. They sought the prosperity and pleasures of the people they should have conquered. In their moral weakness they were easy prey to foreign invaders. In the midst of their oppression they called out to God to save them. God is very patient, but His patience is not without limit. So, He reminded them of the history of God's faithfulness to rescue them. Then with the little word "yet," God reminded them of the real source of their predicament. They tended to assume that their troubles were the result of God's slowness to rescue. So God reminds them that their "forsaking God" was the real source of their troubles. The only thing that really got their attention (and ours) is to let their idolatrous choices play out to their natural end. The stories of the Judges ends with God's people living with the consequences of "everyone doing what is right in their own eyes." Today we call it "learning the hard way." What will it take for me, for you, to learn that forsaking God's way for my way or the world's way always ends with distress which the gods of this world can never fix. In such a situation it may seem as if "God sees us no more," but in reality He truly sees and knows that the only thing that will get our attention is for Him to let us see the destructive result of following gods who are no God at all. There is only One God Who can truly save us from the world and from ourselves. By the way, Jesus never asked Christians to destroy our enemies, He commanded us to love them by demonstrating and telling them of God's ability to conquer and forgive our sin by the death and life of Jesus. John tells us what God was telling His people through the Judges: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world -- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life -- is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with the desires but whoever does the will of God abides forever." (1John 2:15-17)