And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. (Jdg 13:1 ESV)
What is it about mankind? We just won’t stay fixed. It seems that the surest sign that we are about to unravel is that things are going pretty good.
I think Mr. Incredible, from the Disney movie, The Incredibles expresses it well:
Fortunately, God never gives up on us even though we can’t seem to remember that He has already saved us.
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. And when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” (Jdg 11:1-2 ESV)
Jephthah was the “black sheep” of the family. He was told that he was unworthy – that he wasn’t even a part of the family. His half brothers drove him away. Wandering in exile, he was separated from his home . . .
until they needed him.
There will be some who don’t accept us. There will be some who hold our past against us. There will some who think we are not good enough.
But, they don’t speak for God.
Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” (Jdg 10:14 ESV)
Before I do a wedding, I provide premarital counseling. One of the many things we discuss is the need to maintain vital friendships. She needs friends. He needs friends. They need friends.
Unfortunately, too many fall prey to the silly “romantic” ideas. You are all I need. You complete me. It’s us against the world. Our love will see us through any trial. We don’t need anyone else. The character(s) RichandAmy from the comic strip Zits is the classic obsessive, High School, clingy, make-you-want-to-puke relationship. They are together and hanging all over each other to the point that in the few times they are apart, no one can recognize them.
This is not “cute” or “sweet”.
We all need friends for the tough times (especially when our tough time is with our spouse). The problem is, it is really hard to “find” a friend when you are in the midst of the crisis. The time to make a friend is when you don’t need one. Because there will come a day when you will. It’s an investment worth making.
Boy, that was quite a ramble . . .
Why is it we feel justified to ignore God and chase after other things and then yell to Him for help when things go bad (even things He told us would go bad, but we did them anyway)? Like the friends that never see us until we need help moving, God becomes someone we use for our own convenience.
in order that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. (Jdg 9:24 NAS77)
We seem to suffer with the delusion that we can be self-made. We worship power and strength. But it never achieves the peace and prosperity it promises. History is testimony to an unrelenting cycle of rise and ruin.
Somebody comes along and unifies a group against perceived oppression (don’t get me wrong, many times it has been very real (although in this passage I don’t think it was)). They devalue and dehumanize their opponents. They destroy them with a great and righteous slaughter. The liberator (or his descendants depending on whether the deterioration takes years, decades or centuries) believes himself to be “more” and demands greater rights and resources. The oppression begins again until their is a new liberator.
Since the age of Enlightenment, there has been the idea that man is intrinsically good. Given enough resources, education and love, man will naturally form a good and benevolent society. The problem is the historic evidence does not show any indication of this. Yes, there have been occasional pockets of “goodness”, but they don’t last long.
Whether you see Conrad’s assessment of man’s “heart of darkness” or God’s view,
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5 NAS77)
the result is the same. Left to his own devices, man is deluded, selfish and dangerous. We need God.
I am still a man in need of a savior. Thankfully, His mercies are new every morning and I have another chance to choose something other than what I have been.
