- Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Judges 10:11-16,

"The Lord replied, 'When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites,
the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites
oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from
their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will
no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let
them save you when you are in trouble!' But the Israelites said to the
Lord, 'We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please
rescue us now.' Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and
served the Lord. And he could bear Israel's misery no longer."

I am struck with the wording that the Lord "could bear Israel's misery
no longer." After providing the Israelites deliverance from their
enemies, Israel turned its back on the Lord to go serve other Gods.
Yet again, they cried out to the Lord for help, acknowledging their
sin. Since he could not bear their misery he raised up a Jephthah to
subdue Israel's enemies once again.

This the Lord did after telling them he would no longer save them. The
theology of many in our day will not allow for the Lord to change his
mind and do what he just said he would not do. Apparently the Lord did
not consult the great minds of today and did as he pleased. What he
was pleased to do was to change his mind and save Israel yet again
when they cried out to him and repented of their sin and rebellion
against him. They got rid of their idols and served the Lord.

I am reminded that our God is not constrained with a prescripted
creation, that all that happens is preordained. The Scriptures never
tell us that all that happens has been determined ahead of time.
Certainly many things are predetermined, but not all things. When the
Lord created us, he was pleased to do so by incorporating within us a
will. The Lord interacts with us as we exercise that will. I am
mindful of Jeremiah 18:6-10, "'O house of Israel, can I not do with
you as this potter does?' declares the Lord. 'Like clay in the hand of
the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I
announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and
destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I
will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if
at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up
and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me,
then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.'"

The Lord interacts with us in "real time". Don't let anyone tell you
anything different.

The other thing that catches my eye in the above passage is that the
Lord's heart was moved, "he could bear Israel's misery no longer."
Where the nation deserved nothing but the Lord's condemnation and
judgment, he extends is compassion. I can't begin to tell you how much
that means to me! Were it not for this compassion and kindness, where
would I be?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com