PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Judges 9-10
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you!” (Judges 10:14)
Our world is falling apart, and our idols are falling with them.
We hear of “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6)… polarization and division.
Everyone thinks they know the answer and is blaming everyone else.
But the enemy is not out there; the enemy is within, in our own hearts.
Our idols of self-interest, self-confidence and self-reliance are not saving us.
I believe the Lord is letting us have our way, and our way is not working.
And I believe that this is just “the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:8).
We need to face the truth: the problem is in us, not in God or in others.
Our idols cannot help us, we need the Lord’s mercy and help.
“We have sinned, do whatever you think best but please rescue us now.” (Judges 10:15)
The Lord knows our sin, and died to set us free from it.
But He cannot help us until we admit our sin, and rely on Him for rescue.
The only solution I see in our broken messed up world is honest repentance.
This means giving up our gods of self-interest, self-confidence and self-reliance.
PRAYER
Lord, we are repeating the days of the Judges. You are letting us learn the hard way that our selfish ways cannot work. I guess I should be saying, thank You for this hard lesson. May it lead us back to You!
How rudderless – how vulnerable were the people of Israel at this time! Where was the tabernacle – the laws that Moses passed on and the challenge to serve the LORD by Joshua – to which the new settlers promised to serve? Each time they cried – God sent Judges – the people grasping on them for help – but the lure of the ‘gods’ of the people among whom they lived – distracted their devotion to Yahweh! What distracts me? What causes me to be more hopeful and expectant for technology – for medical solutions and vaccines to the pandemic? I’m reminded to put my hope and trust in God first – the means is just a tool. Technology is a tool – right now we use it to help us to ‘gather’ – to stay in touch with each other and to worship – but it is not the ‘saviour’ – the solution. It is only man made – and so like the passage – we too become rudderless when we put our trust there. God first!.
During the days of the Judges, the people did what was right in their own eyes and did not follow the way of the Lord. Later in their agony they cried to the Lord for help and God heard them and sent a judge to deliver them, to bring them to serving God once again. And today, do we in our own strength confide? We too need to be brought to our knees and serve the One and Only true God. Our trust, my trust, must be in Him alone and I need to serve my Master always.
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.