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Judges: Pursuing Rebellious People

by | Apr 26, 2015 | Blog, Prepare for Gathering, Redemption, Theology

Judges Webslider

By: David Keen

“You do you and I’ll do me” simply, yet profoundly captures our culture’s theme and stance towards daily living. Our culture wants to be “tolerant” of everyone and everything. This way of living may sound good, but eventually major problems result in our lives and in society. Why doesn’t this work? Because it’s not God’s design. We were created to live as God intended, not the way we think is best; all the brokenness throughout human history is proof of the error of our thinking. It is only when we live our lives wholly surrendered to our Creator God, through our Savior Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that we find ultimate meaning, purpose, and joy.

This “you do you and I’ll do me” ideology is not a new idea. In fact, it is very similar to the message in the Old Testament book of Judges where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6, 21:25). This Old Testament book remains unmistakably relevant to our lives today. Judges tells the story of God’s rebellious people, between the time of Moses and Joshua, and the first kings of Israel. At that time, God’s people lived in a pluralistic society and worshiped idols. They constantly battled between following God and rebelling against His ways. Similarly today, we worship various idols—money, sex, power, individualism, family, and success. We are prone to the same destructive pattern.

God’s gracious actions toward the rebellious people of Judges who “did what was right in their own eyes” are the same that we see today for our “I’ll do me” actions. They suffer the just consequences for their rebellion. They cry out for help, and eventually repent. God sends a judge to deliver His people and there is peace until the judge dies. Then, God’s people rebel and the cycle begins again. The book of Judges is a piece of the larger redemptive history that the Bible unpacks. Ultimately, Judges (like the rest of the Old Testament) is pointing us to the only perfect Judge and Hero, Jesus Christ, who was sent by God to deliver His people from their rebellion—completely and for all eternity. This good news—that Jesus came to save His people—is the only hope we have of breaking the same rebellious cycle. God relentlessly pursues His rebellious people to save them and set them apart for Himself and His glorious purposes.

We are excited to dive with you into this raw, real, engaging, sometimes hard to read, and true history of God’s people. Our prayer is that we would repeatedly, and without hesitation, repent of our rebellion from God, as we trust in the only perfect Judge—Jesus—who was sent to rescue us so that we might live in a way that honors Him and brings us the most joy. We also pray that God would use us—in spite of us—to show a watching world that He is the only remedy to our desperate need. Simply, we pray that through the power of the gospel, we would seek to live lives that are right in God’s eyes.

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