QT 17 Oct 12, God wants our hearts and he knows how to get our attention

Judges 2:18-23 (NIV) 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. 19 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.

20 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did." 23 The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

NOTE: God's refusal to make life easier (verses 21-23) is directly tied to Israel's disobedience (verse 19), that is, their refusal to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. The verses prior to this declaration describe the cycle repeated in Judges. The people would sin. Their enemies oppress them. They call out to God in their oppression. God raises up a judge to rescue them. When the judge dies, they return to their evil ways and so begins the cycle over again. Ultimately, the people remain as a test of the obedience. But I think the test is also the way God draws people back to himself. There is another pattern in scripture which is repeated in books like Isaiah: when life is good, people forget God, and when life is hard, people call out to God. Wouldn't it be nice if we called out to God and sought him all the time, and did not have to go through the hard times just to be taught to come back to God? The misapplication of Judges is to think if I do right, life will always be pleasant. No, while this is taught in the old covenant, it is not taught in the new covenant. What does follow though is the principle of God using hard times to get our attention. So while life is not necessarily better because of obedience (in a quid pro quo sense), we do avoid the discipline of God to bring us back to him when we are obedient to his word and when we seek him regularly.