SCRIPTURE: Judges 10
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
And because the Israelites forsook the LORD and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. [Judges 10:6-8] God is not a cruel, vengeful God. He does not enjoy making people suffer. He goes to great lengths (more than we know) to help us, to protect us, to restore us. He is committed to helping us out of the mudpit – so when we keep going back in, His heart is moved with sorrow and frustration. His anger is wounded love, not spiteful rage.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. [Matthew 23:37-38] Jesus expresses this same sorrowful love to the Jewish religious leaders. The image of the mother hen desperately trying to protect her chicks from danger shows this. And the words, ‘but you were not willing’, speaks to all of us. How often do we not end up in trouble because of our choices, because of our refusal to honour God, to serve God, to do things God’s way. Yes, God gets angry with us. But it is not a spiteful, heartless rage, it is deep, frustrated love. With sorrow and tears.

God allows us to experience the consequences of our choices. He gives us plenty of opportunities to reconsider, to see how others have fared. His Spirit whispers into our conscience, even at times sets up visible warnings or offers helpful alternatives. But when we persist in going our own way, He does not stop us. He lets us feel the results, He lets us taste the bitter aftertaste. Often those are the times when we become shattered and crushed, and we become desolate. Not because of God’s anger, but because of our choice.

Not everything that happens to us is the direct result of our own sin. Many things happen to us because we live in a sin-devastated world. In either case, whether we suffer because of our choices, or because of the mess of this world, we need the Lord. We need to choose God, and His way. The only way out of this mess is to repent, to welcome His assistance, to allow Him to gently lead us into greener pastures. But first we have to forsake the mudpit.

PRAYER:
Lord, how often I am drawn to the mudpit, then experience the desolation. How often You weep and say, ‘but you were not willing’. Lord, help me to be willing…