Judges 2:11–15 (ESV) — 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned
the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of
Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were
around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them
over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their
surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for
harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were
in terrible distress.
NOTE: This is the
start of a repeated pattern in Israel. The people do not cling to God but
instead follow the gods and practices of the culture around them. They
assimilate to the point where you probably could not tell their were believers
in God anymore. God uses suffering (plundering, slavery, defeat, and terrible
distress) to bring them to their senses. Sin has the same effect today. It
plunders us, taking away our resources. It ties us to it so that we become
slaves to our sin. It defeats us again and again. And the end result is
terrible distress in our life. God wants us to wake up, to return to him, to
cling to him, to love him with all of our being. It cannot be a lukewarm love
but must be a sold-out, go-for-broke love--a deep and abiding love in our
creator and our savior. He cares so much for us, that he disciplines us in this
way for our good -- oh, how we need to listen!
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