Year 4, Day 266: Judges 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

In my theological commentary, I spend a significant amount of time pulling apart the social commentary that Deborah puts into her song about why the Hebrew people fell away from God.  The short answer is simple: the Hebrew people fell because they adopted new gods.

That leads to two greater questions.  First, why did the Hebrew people adopt new gods?  This question is a little more difficult to answer. 

• Part of the answer to this question is their proximity to the Canaanites.  Their proximity meant that they had access to those false gods.  This is a tough message for Christians to hear because we know we are to be in the world. But we are also to not be of the world.  There isn’t anything inherently wrong with proximity to sinfulness; the problem comes when we allow proximity to sinfulness to lead to internalized sinfulness.
• Part of the answer is also because following human-made gods is always easier than following a true God.  Humans make gods that make sense to us.  Humans make gods that encourage success, winning, power, fertility, fruitfulness, prosperity, etc.  Humans make gods that allow us to be who we are.  Following the true God means casting off ourselves to become who He wants us to be.  It makes sense that people trade in belief in the true God for false human gods far more readily than people trade in belief in false human-made gods for belief in the true god.

There is a second question that naturally comes out of this discussion.  What is the effect on community of choosing new gods?

• The effect is disastrous.  As people begin to follow new gods, people also begin to follow a new ethic.  As they follow a new ethic, new morality comes in.  Society restructures itself.  Soon people are allowed to care more for themselves than the foreigner, orphan, and widow among them.  People are allowed to use business models that crush their competition and leave them unable to support their family.  People are allowed to care only about their own land while the highways become treacherous to travel.  Society crumbles as people turn more and more inwardly focused upon their own success.

This is a problem with identity.  Who or what I worship says a lot about me.  Am I interested in the other or am I interested in pursuing my own goals?  Am I willing to follow the greater designs of a God that knows what humanity really needs or will I take matters into my own hands?  Am I willing to submit or will I choose false gods that allow me to assert myself however I choose?

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