One of the great gifts from my re-dedication to the Lord has been a renewed thirst to read my bible. I read a King James version on my tablet because it is easier to hold and the pages flip more easily. I mentioned in an earlier post that I read the New Testament in two weeks. I have since dived into the Old Testament and the pace hasn't been as fast. There is some hard stuff in there! Try reading Deuteronomy quickly. To be honest, it is the Moby Dick of bible books. But I did enjoy Judges very much. And there were lessons in there I thought important for my life.
Judges covers the time between when Joshua took the people into the promised land to the people clamoring for a king and getting King Saul, much to God's displeasure. The book is named after the various men and women over that time in history that judged Israel for God in similar fashion to the role Moses and Joshua judged the people.
And the book is a seesaw whirlwind of good times turning into bad times and back again. The pattern was that with God's help, His people conquered their enemies and then had periods of peace. During that peace, the people would forget about God and turn to other gods and sinful practices.
Because of their sin, enemies would rise up and conquer Israel and make subjects of God's people. Only then would the people cry out to the one true God for help and through the Holy Spirit leading the judges, God would help His people conquer their enemies again and bring about another few decades of peace.
This cycle repeats itself over and over. Each time the people of God would make promises to follow His laws and worship Him. Each time, when times were better, they would forget their promises and screw it all up again.
I can relate to this a lot, especially in my earlier times as a christian and even a deacon. I had the asking God to forgive my sins down pretty well, but not the repent part. I had a constant cycle of falling down, feeling terrible, running to God, getting fired up, making promises and then repeat.
I often thought of the rich young man who approached Jesus in Luke 18:18-23. The young man walked away disappointed and sad because Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor. The young man had things going his way. Things were good. It is difficult to hold onto the need for a Savior when things are good.
And so it was for the Hebrews in Judges. When things were good, they fell. As Christians, our human inclination is to cry out to God when things are going poorly and then rest sort of easy when things are going well. And thus, like the Hebrews in Judges, we fall away and get far too comfortable.
When Jesus considered the young man walking away, He stated that it was difficult for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of God. The apostles were aghast at this saying and questioned their Lord on what he said. Jesus answered that nothing was impossible to God.
Grace is the most key element for the Christian. We do fall and need to ask forgiveness and thanks to the blood of Jesus, we will be forgiven. But another part of the equation is that after Jesus healed someone, he would often say, "Go and sin no more." The Lord would not say as much if it were not possible.
It is hardest during the good times, the peaceful times. We get comfortable and we forget our need for God. I have learned that is more important than ever to be constantly in prayer and in praise during the good times to ensure that the Holy Spirit is working within us to keep us from losing our way. It's not easy and it takes an act of will. But as the Lord said, all things are possible with God. Pray and praise without ceasing and look out for those good times.
