Judges 2:1–5 (ESV) — 1 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to
Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land
that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant
with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants
of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my
voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I
will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides,
and their gods shall be a snare to you.” 4 As soon as the
angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people
lifted up their voices and wept. 5 And they called the
name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.
NOTE: This passage
follows chapter 1 in an explanatory mode. God says that the reason for the
Israelites failure to take the land is not chariots but disobedience. Even so,
God makes it clear that he will never break his covenant with Israel.
Discipline is not breaking a covenant. We discipline our children for their
good (well, some do), and so God disciplines his people for their good. But he
never stops loving them. In one sense, that is the message of Galatians. If you
are a child of God by faith, God's love for you can never change. Nothing we do
or fail to do will change that love for us. We can't earn God's love. God's
love is his personal choice. Despite all of our failures, he remains faithful
No comments:
Post a Comment