This Day in History: 0000-08-29

August 29 – Judges 2:16-19 & 21:25

Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers.
Yet Israel did not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods.
How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. 

Whenever the Lord raised up a judge over Israel, He was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime.
For the Lord took pity on His people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering.
But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them.
They went after 
other gods, serving and worshiping them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

The book of Judges narrates a very dark time in Israel’s history. A time when the people had turned their back on the God who had not only delivered them from slavery in Egypt and miraculously provided for their every need in the desert, but who had also handed over the land of Cannan to them as their own possession!  Here is the first post in a Bible study series on the life of Joshua that talks a lot about that time. But now, here they were, finally living in the Promised Land and they almost immediately forgot the Lord their God!

It’s a tough book to read because there’s so much corruption. Terrible things happened to people in the name of “what was right.” But the last verse of the chapter sums it all up pretty well: all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

Friends, we have much to learn from their example. What a serious warning we’ve had illustrated for us in this divinely inspired historical text! There is great danger in doing what “seems” right in our own eyes.

GREAT DANGER!

If we fall for the lies of the enemy we’ll be convinced of our own aptitude and wisdom, but it is a trap. We are fallen. Sinful. Foolish!

Yet, in His great love, God did not leave us to flounder hopelessly in that state. He gave us access to Divine wisdom through His inspired Word, and through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

May we always be quick to turn to Him for our answers! When we face difficult times we’ll hear an awful lot of advice from an awful lot of people. Let’s be careful to run it all through Scripture. Even those who the world, or even the church, calls experts can never trump the wisdom of our Lord! Let’s seek Him first and have the courage to follow Him in obedience, even when it goes against these sources.

Let’s not EVER fall into the trap of doing what seems right in our own eyes. Let’s be wholly committed to doing what IS right according to our Heavenly Father!