Monday, August 18, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Help!
Israel offended and abandoned the Lord and followed other gods and worshiped them. This provoked the Lord and his anger flared up, and he delivered them over so that they fell into the power of their enemies. Whatever the nation of Israel undertook, the Lord turned into disaster, till they were in great distress. The Lord had sworn he would do this.
Like ourselves in our own day, the Israelites took God for granted. When things fell apart for them God sent them judges to help them restore their reverence to the God who made them. This week the lectionary passages speak of these potentially powerful pastors of the people. That we barely recognize their names shows how successful (read mostly unsuccessful) they were in their leadership. There were twelve judges:
Othniel
Ehud
Deborah
Gideon
Jephthah
Samson
Shamgar
Tola
Jair
Ibzan
Elon and
Abdon
When one judge died,
the people would relapse and do worse than their ancestors,
following other gods in service and worship,
relinquishing none of their evil practices or stubborn conduct.
So worse went to worse as the centuries of the judges unfolded, blood dripping from every chapter. 450 years of rebellion, then repentance and again rebellion, followed by a thousand years of kingdoms rising and falling, priests and kings called out by God’s prophets, and finally 400 years of God’s silence.
The promises are nearly forgotten, replaced by ugly punitive systems of law designed to protect the lawmakers and punish everyone else. But then at last the Messiah was born, growing into manhood and carrying a message of humility, forgiveness and love.
Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Is the Jewish nation ready for this message? (Are we?) Who ever heard of such a thing? Well, the prophets, for one, heard. Micah wrote …
He has shown you, O man, what is good.
   And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
   and to walk humbly with your God.
Jesus did not walk into a vacuum. But over the lifetimes of men and women who heard the promises of Messiah – he will come soon, he will come soon – many ears had become deaf and many minds closed. Coupled with conquests over the centuries by powerful countries around them and now finally occupation by legions of the Roman Empire, hope dwindled.
When Jesus began to speak, however, ears were opened and hearts filled with hope. Jesus knew the heart of his Abba, who was Our Father too. He knew nothing about God’s plan for us had changed, that we had a job to do, and it required that we love one another.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.
When Paul called his listeners to have the mind of Christ, he called them to do what Jesus did. Turn away from the fruitless search for “knowledge of good and evil.” Surrender the control you’ve been blessed with back to the One who does the blessing.
If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.
(Judges 2, Psalm 106, Matthew 5, Matthew 19)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
