Casting off Constraint
This afternoon I made a trip to the Capitol, to testify on an anti-oil and gas bill. It was a long hearing with many witnesses. I returned to Fort Collins to join my HOA board meeting late and then finally return home.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted.” Judges 17:6 HCSB “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25 HCSB
All of the challenges, faults and failures of God’s people in the days of the judges is reflected in the verses above. What is repeated should get our attention. At the end the life of Samson considered the final judge of Israel (unless you count Samuel) is the striking observation about the spiritual condition of Israel. It is repeated as the last words of the book.
Consider the words of Proverbs 29:18 “When there’s no vision, the people get out of control, but whoever obeys instruction is happy.” (CEB) “If a nation is not guided by God, the people will lose self-control, but the nation that obeys God’s law will be happy.” (ERV)
This is certainly what was taking place among God’s people. While there was no political King, there was a leader of the people. God was to be their leader and in the forefront of their hearts and minds. His law was to be the guard rails for the trajectory of their lives.
However they lost sight of God, they were distracted by the nations around and their gods and they were out of control in their behavior. They embraced idolatry and lost their way. It is said of the tribe of Dan, “The Danites set up the carved image for themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the Danite tribe until the time of the exile from the land.” (Judges 18:30 HCSB) That means their idolatry lasted for hundreds of years.
It is said of Samson, as he lost his strength and became a slave to the Philistines, “When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.” (Judges 16:20 HCSB)
Losing our focus on the Lord results in throwing off constraint and becoming insensitive to the ways of the Lord. We assume that the Lord is with us when we begin following our own ways and ignore His. This is why the first commandment is so important. Serving God and Him alone, keeps our focus on Him. We are reminded that He is God and that we are accountable to Him.
When we make ourselves (or anything else) “our own god” we quickly lose our way and “go off the rails.” That is so much at the heart of post-modern philosophy of no right or wrong and “doing what makes me happy.” However, true happiness is found in loving God and obeying Him.
For those who believe people are “basically good” need to examine the lives of God’s people during the days of the Judges. They also need to just look around them at those who live by “their own rules.” You will find that God’s ways are the best and that scripture is true when it says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?“ (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT)