Monday, July 05th, 2010 | Author: Chris
In our Bible reading plan for the month of July, we are reading through Judges. This is a book about how messed up society becomes when people don’t listen to God. It only gets worse as the generations multiply. As you’re reading it, expect to read some messed up and disturbingly disgusting stories. Think about the parallels in our culture today, especially the way which we are spreading the corruption by the messages we are sending kids.
We’d love to read your comments and/or questions about Judges and/or the Kids’ Olympics effort we are undertaking this month as a strategy to help kids gain freedom in Christ from the chaos that consumes them.
Category: Daily Scripture Reading
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Wednesday, 7. July 2010
Chapters 1 and 2 give the overview of Israel spiraling out of control. At first they were doing exactly what God had told them – driving the Canaanites out and taking the land. But then, they didn’t drive them all out; they made some of them slaves. And then, some of them stayed and kept the Israelites in the hill country. And eventually, the Israelites got sucked into all the pagan religious practices of the surrounding people whom they hadn’t driven out.
I’m sure that after a certain point during the conquest of Canaan, it seemed more reasonable just to let the remaining Canaanites stay. Driving them all out would have seemed so brutal, so unnecessarily harsh, so intolerant. But failing to follow through on what God had told them to do was their downfall in the end.
Thursday, 8. July 2010
The incidents in chapters 3 and 4 are brutal. We may wonder how God could allow and even seemingly approve of incidents like Ehud murdering Eglon by pretending friendship or Jael murdering Sisera in his sleep. Evidently, the culture was brutal, and God worked through means He doesn’t necessarily approve of overall, because that was where they were at at the time.
And it makes me wonder what kinds of things God allows, and maybe even seemingly approves of, in our society. Maybe business practices that exploit the poor and oppressed, maybe environmental destruction, maybe bureaucratic oppression in government or business, maybe warfare. I wonder what the true cost of bananas and coffee and cheap clothing and gasoline is. I wonder what future generations–or us, when God’s Kingdom is fully realized–will turn from in revulsion in our society.
Monday, 12. July 2010
Judges 6:14 ‘The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”‘
This verse speaks to us when we feel inadequate to do what we feel God is asking us to do. God tells Gideon, “Go in the strength you have.” As long as he is the one who is sending us, that will be enough. It’s hard not to look at things from a naturalistic point of view and feel that we’re overmatched. But that’s where faith comes in.
Monday, 12. July 2010
I’d love to see some discussion on the statements below made by Keith. Very interesting stuff…
“And it makes me wonder what kinds of things God allows, and maybe even seemingly approves of, in our society. Maybe business practices that exploit the poor and oppressed, maybe environmental destruction, maybe bureaucratic oppression in government or business, maybe warfare. I wonder what the true cost of bananas and coffee and cheap clothing and gasoline is. I wonder what future generations–or us, when God’s Kingdom is fully realized–will turn from in revulsion in our society.”
Tuesday, 20. July 2010
It strikes me how God uses deeply flawed vessels to do his work. Maybe those were the best that were around; maybe God just likes using people despite their flaws. Gideon was cowardly when he began, but trusted God enough to attack an army with 300 men. But he was vengeful against cities that wouldn’t help him, made a golden ephod that would become an idol, practiced polygamy, and had an out-of-wedlock child who would eventually kill the rest of his children and become what some have called an Anti-Judge.
Then there’s Jephthah, who had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him and led Israel to victory, but made an incredibly stupid vow, and then rather than repenting and begging God for mercy, ended up carrying out human sacrifice on his own daughter.
I don’t know whether to be grateful that God can use flawed people like me, or terrified and pray that no evil comes from my own foolish mistakes. Probably both.
Sunday, 25. July 2010
@Keith July 8th
I recently talked with a friend who was asking me what I thought about things like marriage licenses. I guess he didn’t think sinful society had any jurisdiction in his marriage or potential family unit. I understand where he’s coming from.
Now, it also seems to me that one ought not pay taxes to a corrupt, inefficient, backward government. After all, the tax money that Americans have paid Uncle Sam has enabled the abortions of over 40 MILLION unborn children. However, Romans 13 says we ought to pay our taxes. But, does that apply to a government that is using our money for legalized homicide?
After Jesus comes back (or possibly sooner), will people look at us as being hypocritical monsters for claiming to value human life while supporting its destruction? I honestly am having a hard time finding a logical reason to pay my taxes now. I’d be interested in hearing the arguments of different people with different views on this matter.
Tuesday, 27. July 2010
That’s an interesting argument, Shane. Francis Schaeffer said something similar, I think in “A Christian Manifesto.”
On the other hand, the government that both Paul and Jesus affirms paying taxes to was a corrupt, brutal regime that ruled with an iron fist, had long since betrayed its republican roots, mandated outright worship to the Emperor, and crucified its enemies as a grisly reminder of what could happen to you if you dared rebel. So the virtue of the government itself doesn’t seem to be the deciding factor.
But certainly abortion is something we’ve just adapted to that God certainly views as hideous.
Sunday, 1. August 2010
@Keith
I hear you Keith. I don’t know the correct answer to this issue. I just don’t want to be naive or under any delusions. Life can be quite confusing and messy. I trust in Jesus and believe that He will guide me and enable me to do what is right in each situation. That may mean you’ll have to wheel a TV with live satellite into D-Group, so I can attend from the prison they send me to after tax evasion.
Sunday, 1. August 2010
Judges is a book that records the repeated disobedience and then subsequent deliverance of the Israelites. The Jews would be somewhat faithful to their God, Yahweh, but would then eventually lapse into grievous idolatry and sin. God would allow them to be conquered by a pagan people, but would then rescue them by a Judge that He called out. The pattern of worshiping God, rebellion against Him, oppression from their enemies, deliverance, restoration, then rebellion again, repeated itself throughout Israelite history. In many ways, this WAS Israelite history.
Notice Judges 2:20-22
So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.”
God was testing the Israelites faithfulness. And, as we all know, their obedience to the Law became an immense failure. In fact, at one point in the Old Testament, we read that the Jews were actually committing greater sin than the pagan nations!
Were these just REALLY REALLY bad people, or was there something else going on here? As New Covenant believers we need to remember the words of Paul in Romans, that the Law “brings wrath”. Being in the First Covenant actually brought increased sinfulness and death to the Jews, because the Law aroused their sinful passions (Romans 7:5). The Spirit of God did not live in them as He does with us, and therefore I think it shouldn’t be too surprising that the Jews partook in such grievous sin.
Instead of missing the forest because of the trees, Evangelicals should also understand Judges and the Old Testament in its entirety. We can constantly obsess about each individual, colossal failure we undertake, or, we can stop trying to live under the Law. Doing that always ends in disobedience. The alternative is much better. Embrace the resurrected life of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 2:19-21
“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
Tuesday, 3. August 2010
One last note on Judges: the final verse, Judges 21:25 (which also appears in Judges 17:6) reads, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” NASB translates this more word-for-word as “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
We live in a world in which each person is supposed to be the arbiter of their own morality. Each of us is supposed to decide what is right for us, and not to impose that on anyone else. Judges is a crushing indictment of exactly that kind of world. The brutal, horrible stories that take place in it take place precisely as a result of people living life as they see fit.
We need God, not only to forgive us and get us to heaven, but to change our lives right now; to replace what is right in our eyes with what is right in His eyes; to give us both the desire and the ability to live differently.
Tuesday, 3. August 2010
@ Keith’s last post
Amen brother!