I’m currently reading through the book of Judges in the Old Testament as part of the Read Through the Bible in Two Years campaign, and I’ve found that it’s a pretty maddening read.  If you’ve ever spent time in the book, you may remember that the whole book essentially follows the same cycle seven times over a 300 year period:

1) The people of Israel drift away from God and begin to serve other gods and erect other idols
2) God removes His protection from them
3) Israel is attacked and oppressed by another people
4) In their distress, they cry out to God for help
5) God reminds them why they are in distress in the first place – their idolatry and sin
6) God raises up a leader or “judge” to rescue them
7) Israel enjoys peace and prosperity again
8) The cycle begins again…

It can be so easy to read the book and think that the people must have been either a bunch of idiots or just incurably evil.  After all, God’s law seemed so much simpler back then – do good and I’ll bless you, don’t do good and you’ll be cursed (and the answer is… Do Good!).

But of course, it’s more complicated than that.  Let me share four reasons.  First of all, the drifting away tended to be a generational thing.  For example, Judges 2:10-11:  “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.”   I’m sure anyone who has kids can relate to that sentiment about how easy it is for the next generation to drift away from the faith of their parents.  And in an oral culture, where a parent could not give his child a copy of the Bible or show him Veggie Tales as a six year-old, the drift must have been harder to prevent.

Secondly, notice that the people did not drift into atheism, but into worship of the gods of the surrounding cultures.  Remember that Yahweh was a God without form, and the Israelites were forbidden from making graven images of Him.  Certainly it would have been tempting for them to worship a god with a form, to bow down to an idol that could be touched instead of holding on to faith in someone who was so intangible.

Thirdly, the drift always happened during a time of peace and prosperity.  I know that there are Bible teachers who are convinced that God’s will for all of His people is peace and prosperity, but I have found (and Judges backs me up) that times of peace and prosperity are the most dangerous times for the disciple of Jesus, because it is during those times that we believe we can be self-sufficient and have no need for God.  Conversely, it is often through the difficult circumstances and suffering of life when our connection to God is the strongest.

Finally, and most importantly, drifting away from God is the natural inclination of the human heart.  Paul writes in Romans 3:10-12 that “There is no one righteous, not even one;  there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away.”  A wise teacher of mine once said that the human heart would rather pick its nose than worship God.  The point is, the natural inclination is not to worship but to be self-centered, to do what we want, not what God wants.  I can certainly testify to that.  My job is essentially to spend time with God and do what He wants me to do with the congregation He has put under my care, but it still takes incredible discipline and focus to keep from being self-centered.  And too often, that discipline is lacking.

And so, the Judges cycle ends up being a cycle in my own life as well.  I experience a time of peace and prosperity, and find myself not needing God as much.  As I drift away, I find myself entering into patterns and activities that are contrary to God’s will, and before I know it I find myself oppressed by them, unable to break free in my own strength.  I cry out to God, who forgives me, restores me, and reminds me why He has asked me to stay away from those patterns in the first place and to live according to the ones He has set out for me.   

So maybe the Israelites weren’t idiots after all.

With a new school year upon us and the routine-less summer behind, you have been given a chance to begin again, to break free of old habits and return to the way God has set out for you to live.  I love September 1st, along with January 1st, because they are times when I can stop, refocus, and commit myself with God’s help to walking in the ways He has called me to live.  And, hopefully, with the help of God and good accountability from friends, to put off the drift for as long as I possibly can.

So what new beginning is God calling you to this season?  What good pattern have you gotten out of that you need to get back into?  What bad habit have you become oppressed by that you need to repent of so that you might find life and blessing in God?  If you committed to reading through the Bible in Two Years (or another regular time of devotion to God), how can you refocus and set a good pattern going forward?  And who can walk with you through this time so that you put off the drift for as long as possible?

We worship a God of second (and third and fourth and fifth…) chances, a God of redemption in whom we are never irretrievably lost.  Just as God again and again rescued His people in the book of Judges and set them on the right track again, He wants to do the same for you during this season.

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