The Lord Raises Up Judges

 

Judges 2:16-23

 

The Lord Raises Up Judges

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.   Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.  Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.   But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them, and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.   So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice,  I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.”   So, the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

 

In the sixteen hundreds the first people that put a foot on this great land we call America, were going to try something new.  Everyone would live in a community, all would share no one owning anything.  And guess what it did not work, some worked very hard while others did not, and their numbers were getting smaller and smaller, and the governor William Bradford said we are going to change the plan, each family will own their land, and do with it as they see best.  And history tells us that plan was very successful.

 

Did I tell you these people were people of faith, and their faith was not in self or government, but in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ?  But like the people of Israel who chased after other gods so have the USA, and as stated in an earlier paper, many very ignorant people are looking to the government to be that god who will make all things equal.  

 

I got some sad, sad, news.  It did not work in 1600, and it has never worked, but you, like these blind people of Israel, will learn that only in Christ Jesus is their life in full.  I am going to end with this word from Scripture in 1 John 2:17, “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice