The extent of God’s
love is completely incomprehensible. Throughout Scripture, His mercy is
displayed abundantly; let’s look specifically at the Israelites and how the
Lord continually exposed mercy toward them even through their constant
rebellion.
Judges 2 – After Joshua died, “another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served Baals…they followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.”
The Lord rose up a judge for them, He relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. (2:18)
Judges 2: 19 – “But when the judge died, the people turned to ways even more corrupt.”
Judges 2 – After Joshua died, “another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served Baals…they followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.”
The Lord rose up a judge for them, He relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. (2:18)
Judges 2: 19 – “But when the judge died, the people turned to ways even more corrupt.”
Judges 3:5-7 – “The Israelites lived
among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
They took their daughter in marriage and gave their own daughters to their
sons, and served their gods. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord;
they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.”
They cried out, and the Lord rose up another deliverer. (3:9)
Judges 3:12 – “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.”
Again, Israel cried out, the Lord delivered. (3:15)
Judges 4:1 – “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead.”
They cried out and the Lord rose up yet another leader for Israel and they had peace for 40 years. (V. 3)
Judges 6:1 – “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”
Once again, they cried out, and he sent a prophet on their behalf.
Judges 8:33 – “No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals.”
While reading these passages, it’s easy to look upon the Israelites with discontentment – how could they constantly defy the Lord after He had lavished them with His faithfulness? They must be pretty terrible people, right? To be quite honest, that was my first instinct when reading these passages, until I took a good look at myself. Have I not done the same thing? Have we not all done the same thing? The Lord is so good to us, so faithful – and yet we often run after idols. Now, it may not be that we worship idols made of stone, as the Israelite were in the habit of doing – in fact, we probably think of that as a complete abomination to God. We would never even consider doing such a thing. But what about the things in life that we worship every day, which we typically lack to even realize are actually idols? What is something that you often hold in reverence more so than God? Maybe it’s people; we love to be surrounded by people, we love to be loved, and we loved to be honored and esteemed – so much in fact that we often put this desire above our desire to be loved and esteemed by God. Sometimes, we can even allow ourselves to become our own idol. We either think that we aren’t good enough, in whatever capacity that may be, or we think that we are better. Maybe you exalt a job, perfectionism, materialism, marriage, food– even the things that seem completely incapable of becoming an idol, can in fact become an idol. It can become your church, your family, even school. If we are esteeming something above God, we can assuredly say that it has become a god, whether we meant for it to or not.
They cried out, and the Lord rose up another deliverer. (3:9)
Judges 3:12 – “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.”
Again, Israel cried out, the Lord delivered. (3:15)
Judges 4:1 – “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead.”
They cried out and the Lord rose up yet another leader for Israel and they had peace for 40 years. (V. 3)
Judges 6:1 – “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”
Once again, they cried out, and he sent a prophet on their behalf.
Judges 8:33 – “No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals.”
While reading these passages, it’s easy to look upon the Israelites with discontentment – how could they constantly defy the Lord after He had lavished them with His faithfulness? They must be pretty terrible people, right? To be quite honest, that was my first instinct when reading these passages, until I took a good look at myself. Have I not done the same thing? Have we not all done the same thing? The Lord is so good to us, so faithful – and yet we often run after idols. Now, it may not be that we worship idols made of stone, as the Israelite were in the habit of doing – in fact, we probably think of that as a complete abomination to God. We would never even consider doing such a thing. But what about the things in life that we worship every day, which we typically lack to even realize are actually idols? What is something that you often hold in reverence more so than God? Maybe it’s people; we love to be surrounded by people, we love to be loved, and we loved to be honored and esteemed – so much in fact that we often put this desire above our desire to be loved and esteemed by God. Sometimes, we can even allow ourselves to become our own idol. We either think that we aren’t good enough, in whatever capacity that may be, or we think that we are better. Maybe you exalt a job, perfectionism, materialism, marriage, food– even the things that seem completely incapable of becoming an idol, can in fact become an idol. It can become your church, your family, even school. If we are esteeming something above God, we can assuredly say that it has become a god, whether we meant for it to or not.
The main reason
that the Israelites struggled so much with staying true to the Lord is because
their loyalty to Him was dependent on a human being. You’ll notice that every time their ruler
died, the Israelites slipped right back into their evil conducts. Instead of
being devoted to the Lord Himself, they were only devoted to Him on the basis
of possessing a ruler. It says in Isaiah 2:22: “Stop trusting in human beings,
who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?” Humans come and go; they are not capable of
maintaining stability, which is why the Israelites had a wavering faith. Their
faith didn’t depend on God, who is steadfast; it depended on human permanence,
which doesn’t exist.
It’s also important
to note that the Israelites didn’t necessarily stop worshiping God altogether,
but many times they began worshiping other idols alongside of Him. Let me give
you an example of how we do this today: as women, we all desperately want to
find a charming and adoring man of God who loves us more than we deserve. We
often make the claim that we trust God in this area of our life, we lay it
before Him and, before we know it, we find ourselves trying to assist Him by
working to impress every potential husband that we come across. Therefore, we
claim that we trust God wholeheartedly, and then go to prove quite the
opposite. The problem with this is that we can’t have two objects of worship,
two objects in which we put our trust – there’s only room for one.
Be reminded today of the Lord’s mercy in the
midst of our idolatry, which doesn’t significantly differ from the idolatry of
the Israelites 2,000 years ago. And then allow Him to be the source of your
stability so that you will obtain the capacity to remain steadfast before His
throne.
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