Judges

Our daily Scripture readings have brought us to the book of Judges. Israel, under the human leadership of Joshua and the heavenly leadership of God Almighty, has taken the Promised Land after five years of fierce and bloody fighting. Many enemies are dead, punished by God for their unrighteousness (I discussed this in my other blog, Old Fashioned Thoughts in a New Age World). But many enemies remain, and those that do become a scourge to Israel.

In Judges, we read a continuous cycle of righteousness leading to apostasy, leading to punishment, leading to repentance, leading to salvation through a judge, leading to righteousness. This happens over and over again. Why? Because people are stupid. We are created with a God-shaped hole in our souls and born with an insanity that turns us away from the only God who can fill it. The Israelites turned again and again to false gods of wood and blood sacrifice when the real God who gave them the land in the first place was right there waiting to bless them if they would simply serve Him. And they couldn't do it. They couldn't bend their stiff necks enough to bow to the one, true God.

How often have I done the same thing? It is easy to yell at the Israelites for their stupidity, but it is my stupidity, as well.

Our nation has fallen into idolatry. We sacrifice babies to the god of personal choice. We give the government our trust and money and tell it to do what it will with them because it knows best. We believe in all manner of spiritual things like ghosts and past lives, but mention the name of Jesus and you become intolerant.

Judges is an ugly lesson of what happens when we forget the God we serve. It is a lesson we must remember quickly, for all our sakes. Christian brothers and sisters, I urge you to join me in praying for the salvation of our country, lest we finally come under ultimate judgment as a nation and cease to exist altogether.