Tuesday; June 11

One of the more interesting books in the Old Testament is Judges. Not only is it full of very colorful stories, it provides us with an interesting look at life. Basically, the story told in Judges is simple: God’s people practice evil … God sends a hardship on them … the people repent … God sends them a deliverer … they clean up their act for a while … then, God’s people practice evil … God sends a hardship on them, etc. From a historic perspective, it seems pretty plain that the Israelites could have avoided a lot of heartache if they would have just done what was right in God’s sight; but they didn’t – so the merry-go-round kept spinning.
As I thought about this the other day, I was reminded of another passage of scripture that states, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools …” (Romans 1:21-22). Does this sound familiar in 21st Century America? How many of our fellow citizens claim a knowledge of God, but choose not to follow His will? Interestingly, Paul uses a phrase several times in this section, “God gave them over”. In other words, in response to their arrogant mindset God basically said, “OK, have it your way. Deal with the consequences of your actions and let the chips fall where they may.”. As we look around at what is going on in our world today, are we merely reaping what we have sown? Shouldn’t we be smarter than that? We have thousands of years of history to learn from – are we willing to do it?
Think About It!

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