Love That Never Fails

41. Our Undeserved Gift

History is full of ups and downs —times of plenty and times of famine, times of peace and times of war.  Most of what we see being a direct result of the Fall when sin first entered the world in the Garden of Eden. 

As we have walked through the Old Testament so far, we have seen the way God lovingly responded to His people and brought them out of slavery into the Promised Land.  He provided for them in so many ways! There were good times under the leadership of Moses and then Joshua. The Israelites decided to serve God but unfortunately, after Joshua passed away, things went into a steep decline!

"After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, 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. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord's anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress."
‭‭Judges‬ ‭2:10-15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It was very sad to see how quickly the Israelites started to blend into the culture around them, worshipping idols, completely forsaking God. Consequences followed and it looked like a hopeless situation, until God mercifully stepped in:

"Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders."
‭‭Judges‬ ‭2:16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Here we see God's love and grace for His people, providing a way for them to prosper again but it wasn't an easy path out of wickedness because we see they refused to listen! Turbulent times were ahead!

"Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord's commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways."
‭‭Judges‬ ‭2:17-19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How disappointing this must have been for God who had done so much for them!

"Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.""
‭‭Judges‬ ‭2:20-22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So Israel experienced many years of testing but God mercifully sent one judge after the other. It's easy to look at this part of history and feel alarmed and exasperated at the wickedness of the people but when you examine more current history, sadly, not a lot has changed. However, the one extraordinary difference is that we live on the other side of the most pivotal event in all history:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
‭‭John‬ ‭3:16-17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We too would have carried on in a self destructive way, but God made a way for us to have forgiveness of our sins, once and for all and to be able to live forever in His Presence! This is surely something we can be very thankful for!

Let's pray:

Heavenly Father,

How blessed I am to be able to talk to You in prayer! Thank You so much for loving me and sending Jesus to die for me, so all my sins could be taken care of. I admit that just as the Israelites sinned, my natural tendency is toward sinful thinking and sinful actions. I am so sorry for the ways I have caused You pain through going my own way.  Thank You for the reassurance that all of my sins are forgiven —every single one! This truly is a wonderful, undeserved gift!

I receive it in Jesus' Name,
Amen.