Why does God even bother with His people?
What are stories about nation conquest, death and blood, rape and cutting people up doing in the Bible? It’s tempting to ignore a book such as Judges. And yet, it is part of God’s perfect revelation. Judges raises a lot of questions and makes us wonder about a whole lot of things. Maybe it even makes you wonder about God?
The books of Judges (and Ruth which happens in the same time period) sits between the books of Joshua and 1 & 2 Samuel in the Old Testament part of the Bible. Historically, the book of Judges covers the period of time between the death of Joshua and the many Israelite Kings. At that time, God, in faithfulness to His promises had given His people the land of Canaan as the Promised Land. His people had been given the task of destroying the nations that lived there. To us, this may seem harsh, but God was not being vindictive or just plain mean. Those nations were wicked and evil. God was judging them and they deserved it. His people however, did not fully carry out God’s commands (Judges 1-3). What’s more, the Israelites dedication to Him as their God began to wane as they began to serve the gods of the nations they had failed to destroy. To put it simply: God’s people were unfaithful to Him.
As God had warned, their unfaithfulness resulted in their oppression by the people they were supposed to have destroyed. This was God’s judgment on them because of their unfaithfulness to Him and we find a recurring pattern through the book of Judges. God’s people are unfaithful; they are oppressed by the nations around them; they cry out to the Lord for help; He delivers them through the leadership of a Judge; they have peace; they become unfaithful again and the cycle is repeated.
Given all that, it makes you wonder why God even bothers with His people! And the answer to that question is what we plan to explore in this sermon series on the book of Judges. Through our study, we hope to come to understand and embrace in faith, that the God we serve is the God who is always faithful. Always. Even when His own people so often are not. What a God we serve!
Join us next Sunday!