Saturday, September 20, 2014

Year 4, Day 263: Judges 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here 


Discipleship Focus: Obedience

  • Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

I know I talked about obedience yesterday.  But Judges 2 has such an incredibly similar theme as Judges 1 that it cannot be helped.  The issue with the Hebrew people is their obedience.  The angel of the Lord says as much in Judges 2:2.  “You have not obeyed my voice.”  The issue is obedience indeed!  The Hebrew people are not obeying the Lord.  They are choosing to obey themselves and their own agendas.  So the Lord chooses to not drive out the people before them.

The people mourn.  They grieve.  But as soon as Joshua dies we can see their true colors.  Their disobedience flares up once more.  It’s the same old story.  So God sends in a judge.  The Hebrew people capitulate to God so that they can be delivered.  But as the end of the chapter indicates, this is a cycle that happens again and again.  This is the cycle of the book of Judges.  Disobedience leads to bondage.  The people cry out in bondage.  God delivers them.  They capitulate – put on a face of obedience – while the one who delivered them is around.  Then they fall away into bondage of their sin and the cycle repeats.

The only way to stop that cycle is to change to whom our obedience flows.  We are obedient to our identity.  So if our identity leads us into bondage, change our identity!  Instead of rebelling against God, we should embrace God and His ways.  If we find ourselves in bondage, the only way to not end up back there is to get our identity from God so that we can be obedient to Him!  The only way out of bondage to our sinfulness is to change from where our identity comes!

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