Better Than Judge Judy; Judges 1:1-3:6; 17

May the mumbling commence!

The Lord is judge – much better than “Judge Judy.”  That whole family of TV shows reminds me of the recurring phrase found in the book of Judges.  Thanks to the chronological order of my readings, I found the recurring phrase first in Judges 17:6 – “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”  Judge Judy and her TV court show cohorts judge as they see fit.  They “tell it like it is.”  They judge as they see fit. 

And, there are our elected officials – from the president of the United States to our neighbor on the school board.  They govern as they see fit.  They have learned to talk out of both sides of their mouth.  Do we have no one to look to for fit and just leadership?  Are we that much different than Israel in the time period of Judges?  Do we act as there is no king or president?

The Lord is the only just judge.  God is our only King.  And Jesus is our President.  If we remember these things, we will have a better chance at avoiding the cycle that Israel fell into – falling away from covenant faithfulness, suffering oppression from our enemies, crying out to God for salvation, and receiving God’s mercy through an earthly judge, a messiah (with a lowercase “m”).  The pattern is described in Judges 2:

After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.  Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.  They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.  In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.  Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. 

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.  Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands.  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.  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. 

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, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.  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."  The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. (Verses 10-23)

It is distressing to me when I read that another generation grew up knowing neither the Lord nor the mighty works of the Lord.  What happened to the parents, who were to teach their children these things at home and on the road?  What is happening in the church today?  Where are all the young adults?  They have disappeared.  Do they not know the Lord?  Or do they know the same Lord in a different way?  I think it is a little of both.

While the Lord left some of the peoples of Canaan to test Israel, we are being tested by the hole in our church memberships.  How can we be more faithful at nurturing our children so that they will remain in church?  How can we be more faithful to the call of Christ to the churches to serve with wholehearted vigor?  This vigor will become contagious and attract new people and bring former members back into the fold of Christ.  Let’s break our cycle and remember the Lord’s compassion on us.  Let’s seek Him with all our hearts and all our vigor.  

Enough mumbling for now…  

Peace Out