“Another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor
what He had done for Israel.” Then
Israel kind of went off the rails. They
“did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.” The Baals, another way of saying they severed
other gods. Which gods? Well whatever gods happened to be in the
neighborhood. Kind of a recurring case of
“the god is always greener in the other temple.”
“They followed and worshiped the various gods of the peoples
around them. The provoked the Lord to
anger. How did they get so off
track? Just a little while back we had
them crossing the Jordan and gathering twelve stones to serve as a
monument. To help them remember. “When your children see them tell them about
what God has done. Tell them how God
delivered you from Egypt. Tell how God
care for you in the desert. Tell them
how God brought you into the Promised Land.”
(Leonard Paraphrase Translation)
But it turns out that telling by itself isn’t enough. Listening to the stories of what God has done
in the past isn’t enough. The faith of
your parents isn’t enough. Second had
faith doesn’t stick. You need your own
history. You need your own firsthand faith.
But if you don’t have your own faith, how do you build a
history with God? It’s kind of a Catch
22. For your faith to stick you need
some of your own history with God. Buy
how do you build a history with God when you don’t have faith in God?
“Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them…” Judges weren’t like our judges today. They were mostly military leaders who rose up
to lead the Israelites when they were facing an enemy. Israel would follow the judge until they
prevailed over their enemies. But then
they would fall away from following God.
They went into a pattern of serial and generational lapses in faith.
“Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted
themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly
turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to
the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with
the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge
lived; for the Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who
oppressed and afflicted them. But
when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those
of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They
refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.” Judges 2:17-19
My first car was a 1960 Ford Falcon which was 15 years old
when I acquired it while in high school.
It had, shall we say, character.
The manual gear shift was 3 on the column and there was so much play in
the linkage that you didn’t shift it so much as play hide and seek with the
gear that you wanted. The defrosters
didn’t work but that was okay because it had wing windows. The rear passenger side door would fall off
if you opened it. Okay, maybe “character”
is an over statement. But it ran, it was
cheap, and it was mine. One other trait
was the manual steering that had linkage soooooo loose that it rivaled the gear
shift. You had to constantly adjust your
steering if you wanted to stay in your lane.
And you constantly had to pay attention.
You couldn’t rely on the steering to keep you relatively straight
because it wouldn’t. It was a constant
back and forth on the steering wheel like some kid driving a bumper car.
Israel’s faith stayed on course about as well as my old Ford
Falcon. A moments in attention and they
were off track, in the next lane and following others gods. Which gods?
Pretty much whatever god happened to be in the neighborhood. When it came to being faithful to god Israel
had the attention span of a toddler in a toy store.
And this is a problem that will plague Israel for
generations. And I think it still plagues believers today. For Israel the answer is a new judge when one
is needed. For us the answer is… well,
we’ll get to that answer later on as we work through The Story, as we work
through the Bible. But there is one
thing which I find greatly encouraging in Israel’s constant falling off the
path of faith.
While Israel may have a problem with faithfulness, God does
not. God is always there with whatever
is needed to bring them back on track.
Right now it’s a new Judge. Later
there will be a better answer, a more permanent solution. But as history unfolds, God will reveal ways
that we can stay close to Him and we can stay on the path of faith. We are moving from relying on the faith of a patriarch,
the faith of a leader, the faith of judge.
We are moving towards a time when faith becomes personal for
everyone. We are slowly moving from
second hand faith to a firsthand faith.
And that’s the only kind of faith that can really last.
God, I’m glad
that I’ve had a walk of faith with You.
You’ve taught me a lot about following You and remaining faithful. I don’t have it completely figured out
yet. I get distracted. I get off track. But just like Israel, you come up with ways
to bring me back on track. And while I’m
glad I’ve got a firsthand faith in You, I’m especially glad for Your faithfulness. Thanks for always bring me back on track when
I need it. Amen
Leonard
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