Daily Devotional

I first read through the book of Judges when I was about 18 years old. Before that I had heard some of the stories, mostly ones about Gideon and Samson, but I had never read the book in its entirety. When I finally did, I was shocked! First, I was shocked by the violence of the stories.

If they adapted the book of Judges into a TV show it would not be rated G. Second, I was shocked by the…I’m just going to say…by the stupidity of the people of Israel. There was a constant cycle that happened over and over again; Israel would sin, they would face consequences for that sin, they would cry out to God, and God would raise up a deliverer. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

      Not only did they continue repeating this cycle, but each time around things just seemed to get worse. The book of Joshua ends with the people of Israel saying, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey” (Joshua 24:24). By the time we get to the end of Judges, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

      As I was reading through Judges and I got to the fourth or fifth time that this crazy cycle was repeated in Israel I suddenly had a realization; I am Israel. I sin, I face consequences, I call out to God, and God delivers me. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

      My attitude reading through Judges changed. Now I wondered what was it going to take for the people of Israel to stop repeating this cycle? What was it going to take for me to stop? What Israel needed is what we need, a godly king. Israel had David, who was a pretty good king. We have Jesus, who is a perfectly great King.
 
The only way to pull out of the cycle of sin is to submit to our godly King. We have to stop doing what is right in our own eyes and instead do what is right in His eyes. This isn’t easy and we won’t do it perfectly but staying on the downward spiral of sin is a far worse option. Israel often called out to God when they were conquered by another nation and things couldn’t get much worse. We don’t have to wait till we hit rock bottom. If you find you are on the wrong train, it’s better to get off at the next station than to wait and see where it will take you. You’ll never get to the right location if you’re on the wrong track.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.