Judges 10 -- Here We Go ....

God had given Israel 45 years of peace and security, but my commentary noted that the people didn’t take advantage of those years to grow their relationship with Him.  They openly returned to idolatry and God again had to step in.  Their lack of gratitude to God for peace and security amounted to enjoying God’s gifts, but not being grateful to the Giver.

 

They then failed to submit to Him.  “When we’re comfortable and enjoying His blessings, we tend to forget God and assume that we can sin and get away with it.  Comfortable living often produces weak character … Since Israel didn’t value the things of God, she ended up destroying her own national character.”

 

God used the Philistines and Ammonites to shake them out of their apathy.  “History was repeating itself, and they cried out again for deliverance … But this time God announced that He wouldn’t help them anymore.  They could ask their new gods for help!”

 

This was huge!  People thought nothing of abandoning God, but they couldn’t imagine Him doing the same to them!  “The greatest judgment God can send to His people is to let them have their own way and not interfere.”

 

Israel faced another problem despite their willingness at that point to finally submit to Him – they had no one to lead them!  My commentary said, “The absence of qualified leaders is often a judgment of God and evidence of the low spiritual level of the people … When the appetites of God’s people turn to things of the world and the flesh, He judges them by depriving them of good and godly leaders.”

 

Father, help my sons and me not to turn from You, especially never to the point the Israelites reached here.  I don’t want to have my own way.  It would be the worst that could happen to me.  I don’t want to ever reach the point where I have to ask, “Where is God?”

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford