SCRIPTURE: Judges 3
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. [Judges 3:9]
When the people move away from God, they experience the misery of His absence; when they move towards God, they experience the blessing of His presence.
This chapter (and subsequent chapters) repeat the refrain: God helps those who humbly seek Him, but abandons those who abandon Him.
The good news is that God is willing and ready to help those who humbly seek Him.
He will send help!
But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. [Luke 18:13-14]
Jesus tells this story to make this very point.
God is not stubborn or unwilling to help.
He does not delight in seeing us suffer.
But neither can He truly help us unless we admit our need for help, and humbly acknowledge our dependence on Him.
Like the alcoholic who denies they have a problem, it usually takes a crisis or an intervention to open their eyes, and get them desperate enough to admit their need for help.
Do I really recognize how much I need God’s mercy and help?
Do I really sense the seriousness of sin, and my inability to fix or help myself?
Do I truly realize how wrong and dangerous my attitude toward God is, and that resisting or rejecting Him will eventually destroy me?
God graciously allows me to suffer in this life, so that by crisis or intervention, I come to my senses and seek His help.
The good news is that God does come to help, when we ask Him.
He provides a deliverer.
Jesus is the ultimate deliverer.
He is the One who removes the problem of sin, restores us to fellowship with God, and empowers us to partner with Him in restoring God’s world.
But I will not experience this forgiveness and freedom, unless I am first humbled.
I need to repent, to admit my guilt and sin, to cry out for mercy and help.
And He is ready and willing to help, to have mercy.
PRAYER:
Lord, You are patiently waiting for me to humbly acknowledge my desperate need for You, and ask for help. You are ready to help!
What do we do when we go through dark valleys?
God’s people were to be a separate people and not mix in with the people who lived around them. They were to exercise the ban but did not complete their task. They not only lived among the Canaanites but also became like them by marrying them and serving their gods. They did what was right in their own eyes.
Yet each time when His people recognized the error of their way, God answered by providing them a deliverer – a judge. And as long as the judge lived, the people served God. When the judge died, they would return to their sinful ways. Until the next deliverer.
Yet we have THE DELIVERER – Jesus Christ. He is able to lead us on THE way each day and always. As each judge save the Israelites, so will Jesus Christ save us. No wonder they call Him Saviour.
I am never alone. He has promised that all who come to Him, He will give them rest as long as we turn our hearts toward home.
Come to Him in prayer.
I must be persistent in that prayer in my daily walk with God. He needs to be my passion and my persistence. All my days need to be lived in His presence. I must follow Him all my days.
Jesus Christ is MY Deliverer. Him I follow, always.
Always. Always. I’ll walk with Him always.