Ermergersh!!!!!..... Wow.... it's been a little while....... This is a little awkward..... it's like completely and totally ignoring somebody for almost six months and then coming back acting your like your BFF's... so umm hi internet..... I'm back.
So a lot of things can happen in the space of 6 months.... plague can strike, weight can be lost, the NFL regular season can happen, Israel can lay the smackdown on Egypt 30 times over (6 days war???? Anybody.... nothing..... no... okay.), and most important of all I can come up with a lot of things to blog about!...... but I forgot all of them. Except for one oddly enough...
So there I was in September reading through Judges just for kicks and giggles. Judges follows pretty much the same pattern over and over and over of Israel and God are good everything is going peachy, and then Israel decides they'd rather do their own thing. (All this is covered in Judges 2: 11-16 So Israel's all like " Hey, God it's been fun BUT...... we're kinda seeing this other guy *enter name of pagan god here* and well... it's not you it's me sooooo deuces". and then they go their way and what happens everytime? They get enslaved or crushed or pretty much just all around destroyed by some other country. And this whole time do they turn back to God? Oh no.... they have to wait until things get really bad, and THEN finally all the people will come crawling back crying and weeping and teeth gnashing and sackclothing/ashesing, and all those other fun things people used to do back then, to God who then sends in a "Judge" (Judges 2:16)
who goes all Arnold-Schwarzenegger-in-the-last-10-minutes-of-Commando on the bad guys and kills everybody. And just when we think everything's all sparkles, giggles, and unicorns in the land of ancient Israel... the Judge dies (quality of life wasn't exactly all that great then). Soon as the Judge dies and all the other people who were alive during the Judges time being over Israel are dead......... Everybody decides that their way is better than God's way... again. Wash rinse repeat... several times.
Sounds like a pretty cut and dry book right? Mostly just a history of Israel being sinful and showing just how stubborn the Israel folk really are...... with lots of people dying.... really.... a LOT of people die in this book. Some of these deaths are quite..... graphic too.... i.e. Tent stakes being hammered through people's temples, fat guys (King Eglon) on toilets getting swords rammed in (By Ehud) so deep the dudes fat covers the hilt and "the dung came out" (3: 12-30). Fun stuff right.... while reading said book though.... I had a thought (it doesn't happen much so I like to take advantage of them when I have them). Judges.... is NOT just a history....... it's NOT a just a cautionary tale of what happens when you turn your back on God..... this is a love story. In fact, it's one heck of a love story. Here we've got Israel... God's chosen people (and believe there is absolutely NOTHING about these people that made them any different or special them that would make them awesome to be His chosen people... outside of the fact that He chose them) completely and God.... the one who brought them out of Egypt, by His power alone helped them defeat all these different peoples, gave them land of their own, and guided and protected these people through everything. Well Israel after being called God's chosen people and being given everything to them by Him..... decided they didn't need Him anymore and they would be better off with some pagan gods. Well after they had their fill of the consequences of abandoning the God that set them apart from all other peoples, they would finally come back to God who was right there.... the whole time waiting for them. He would deliver the people, they would rejoice and praise God for a time..... then the Judge would die and they would turn right back around and start doing their own thing again.
It really does NOT sound that romantic when you tell the story with God and a nation.... but think of this in terms between two people. We have a married couple, right? Well one of these people decides that they want to go do their own thing and they cheat on their spouse... after living in sin for a time they recognize their sin, repent and beg forgiveness of their spouse who willingly and whole heartedly take them back with open arms.... only for said spouse to go back and do it AGAIN. And every single time this happens, the cheating spouse repents and begs forgiveness of their mate who loves the other so much that the one who cheated is forgiven and brought back.... the one cheated on is still hurt by it.... hurt deeply by it, but still has such a deep love for the other that He is willing to work through that sin to reunite with the other.
Now I'm about six months out from getting married, and I don't even want to BEGIN to think about what that would be like even once!..... but God.... has such an incredible love for the people of Israel that He welcomes them back and forgives them EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. ...... That's crazy! From a human standpoint we like to think "oh, well... ya know I've forgiven you this many times and that's it. That's enough", but God in his infinite love for Israel.... His love for us continues to forgive them over and over and over. They completely and totally betrayed Him. Cheated on God with false gods....... and still He forgave them!!!
It's awesome how much God loves us. That no matter what sins and atrocities we can commit, He still gave us a way to cover our sins with the blood of Jesus.... he loves us even though we don't deserve to be loved. He forgives us even though we don't deserve to be forgiven. He gave Israel the Judges (who we're by NO means perfect people, but He *spoiler alert possible future blog post* doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called) to give them a way to escape their enslavement to other powers (which was their consequence for abandoning God). He gave us Jesus.... and His death to give us a way to escape death (the consequence for sin.... which is breaking God's commandments).
Judges portrays God's never ending love and forgiveness for His people.... completely unearned and completely undeserved, but it is their nonetheless. So in the midst of all the blood shed going on in Judges, more than anything it demonstrates God's undying love for His people...it's a history of Israel, but also God's love story for the people of Israel.
So yah ..... back in the blog world again.......
Now I'm about six months out from getting married, and I don't even want to BEGIN to think about what that would be like even once!..... but God.... has such an incredible love for the people of Israel that He welcomes them back and forgives them EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. ...... That's crazy! From a human standpoint we like to think "oh, well... ya know I've forgiven you this many times and that's it. That's enough", but God in his infinite love for Israel.... His love for us continues to forgive them over and over and over. They completely and totally betrayed Him. Cheated on God with false gods....... and still He forgave them!!!
It's awesome how much God loves us. That no matter what sins and atrocities we can commit, He still gave us a way to cover our sins with the blood of Jesus.... he loves us even though we don't deserve to be loved. He forgives us even though we don't deserve to be forgiven. He gave Israel the Judges (who we're by NO means perfect people, but He *spoiler alert possible future blog post* doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called) to give them a way to escape their enslavement to other powers (which was their consequence for abandoning God). He gave us Jesus.... and His death to give us a way to escape death (the consequence for sin.... which is breaking God's commandments).
Judges portrays God's never ending love and forgiveness for His people.... completely unearned and completely undeserved, but it is their nonetheless. So in the midst of all the blood shed going on in Judges, more than anything it demonstrates God's undying love for His people...it's a history of Israel, but also God's love story for the people of Israel.
So yah ..... back in the blog world again.......
No comments:
Post a Comment