Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. – Judges 2:17 ESV
Warrior;
There are many SAD verses in the Bible. Verses that say so much, on so many levels that it is sad. Sad to think that mankind can be so messed up. Sad that the human heart can be so wicked. However deep the sadness, the AWE of GOD’S LOVE, goes upward to even greater heights. Any and ALL the verses that describe what we did to Jesus in His crucifixion is beyond sad! As you think of Some of the SADDEST verses in the Bible, here are a few. Hear the PAIN in the WORD of the LORD: Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:5,6) Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:38) He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. (John 1:10) And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. (Judges 16:20) And one of the saddest, and scariest verses for any believer culminates in the final verse of this future forecast, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23) Then every island fled, and no mountain could be found. And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous. (Revelation 16:20-21)
Leader, the reason that today’s verse from the 2nd Chapter of Judges is so sad, is because it is a statement about all of us. It is our basic pattern. WE FORGET the important things! We get COMFORTABLE, and then we get entitled, then we get lazy, then we follow after the gods of the flesh, the gods of this world. When reading the Bible- if we think of God as our manufacturer, our creator, it helps make the Word more understandable. God’s instruction manual is His Word. He is our Father and our Maker, so HE knows how we work, and HE KNOWS WHAT IS BEST! It is written; For he knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. (Psalm 103:14) God knows our foibles, He knows our failings, He knows our feelings, because He knows our frame. The Shema is one of only two prayers that are specifically commanded in Torah, it’s the oldest fixed daily prayer in Judaism. It has been recited, morning and night since ancient times. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) The book of Deuteronomy itself is called, “The Second Law”, it is a restatement of things already said and done. Jesus quoted the book of Deuteronomy more than any other book. He wants us to REMEMBER the right things, we tend to remember the wrong things. I believe the most given commandment, the thing God says most often, in the Bible is the command to REMEMBER. The second most given instruction would be. ‘DO NOT FEAR’. When you put them together a mystery is illuminated. Do you hear the Lord’s encouragement? What an overriding message from our maker; REMEMBER- DO NOT FEAR! Why would our maker and our PAPPA feel the need to tell us to REMEMBER and DO NOT FEAR so much? Because HE KNOWS our proclivities and patterns, He knows our pains and palpitations; HE knows OUR FRAME, and He knows the plans He has for us!
Conduit, we see the same pattern in America today, that we see throughout the entire book of Judges. Why does this matter, because this is MAN, this is FLESH, this is what Romans 3:23 means, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. We are NOT sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. Why do we forget, why do we follow after other gods, why do we choose to do it our way, instead of YAHWEH? We do these things because of our flesh; our hearts are wicked! As Jesus Himself stated, “Who is good, only GOD IS GOOD”. Here is the pattern for Judges and for man: God blesses them, they turn their backs on God. God turns His back on them, and they are oppressed by their enemies. They eventually cry unto the Lord. God delivers them. They serve the Lord, they prosper, then they turn their back on the Lord. The book of Judges is a series of 13 ‘Apostasy and Servitude’. Scottish historian Alexander Tytler did not need omniscience to identify this pattern in man. The Tytler cycle is man’s confirmation of God’s Word. Tytler shows how people go from Bondage back, to bondage, as does God. Hear the word of the Lord, ““If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!” (Exodus 16:3) BUT GOD! This is what makes the WORD OF GOD, GOOD NEWS– BUT GOD!! ‘But God’; two of the best words to hear in His-story, and in our story. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26) You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. (Acts 3:15) But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. (Genesis 8:1) My personal favorite; But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) In Christ you are a NEW CREATURE, the old has washed away. The pattern of the flesh is NOT the pattern of the SPIRIT. When we are born again, we get a NEW SPIRIT. We DO NOT conform to the PATTERNS OF THIS WORLD, we get to run a new pattern, a NEW WAY, it is YAHWEH! Today, REMEMBER- DO NOT FEAR- BUT GOD! Remember; I am confident that the Creator, who has begun such a great work among you, will not stop in mid-design but will keep perfecting you until the day Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, returns to redeem the world.
