Scripture: Judges 1-2.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Judges 2:1-3 (NLT)

1 The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said to the Israelites, “I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give your ancestors, and I said I would never break my covenant with you. 2 For your part, you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land; instead, you were to destroy their altars. But you disobeyed my command. Why did you do this? 3 So now I declare that I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.”

Judges 2:15 (NLT)

15 Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the people were in great distress.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

Over the past number of chapters it has been so uplifting to read how God protected, fought for, cleared the way and directed His chosen people, and of course it was encouraging to read how consistently obedient the Israelites were to God and his leaders Moses and later to Joshua. What is extremely unfortunate in this passage is to see how gradual and unsuspecting sin started to enter the camp. God had given specific instructions to the Israelites about totally cleaning out the land of all of its inhabitants and sinful gods so that they would not be tempted to sin. These chapters show is that the people did what they thought best, instead of following God’s commands precisely. Without even reading the rest of the chapter, we can tell what the results of these selfish, sinful acts were.

Fortunately for some today, and unfortunate for many today, God is still God. His commands were not given as a guide, but as commands for His children to follow so that we may live a long and prosperous life, filled with hope and the expectation of a wonderful home in heaven with Him. When disaster comes, and defeat is experienced, we must look at verses like Judges 2:15 and realize that we could cause God to actually turn against us because of our sin and disregard for His commands. When we accepted Jesus as Lord of our lives, we accepted Him and all of His commands that were issued in love so that we may stay on track as a follower of His. When someone visits my home, they are expected to live by my house rules. When someone goes to school, they are expected to honor the rules of the school system. When someone comes to work at my place of employment, they must follow the rules of the company if they want to remain employed. Why then would we possibly feel like we can accept Jesus and then live any way that we feel like? We must follow His ways, and His will, so that He might reside in us, protecting us, guiding us, loving us, and preparing a home for us in heaven. Just like any good parent would want to raise obedient children, God also wants obedient children. He paid a great price for us, let’s show our love and appreciation by being obedient children each and every day!

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father You know better than us, that this old world presents many obstacles in our daily path that tend to take us off track in our walk to faithful obedience to You. However, as I have seen in so much of Your Word, You are all powerful and therefore can help us overcome every obstacle, every temptation to sin, every habit that may ultimately harm us or cause us to sin or interfere in our witness of Yourself. Please touch my life again today and help me to overcome the distractions of this world that seem to beckon my attention. Please help me to stay so in tuned with Your Word that I may be filled with Your Holy Spirit who in turn, will give me strength for every moment and power to stay the course in being the child of Yours that You intended me to be. May I not only be clean and obedient in Your sight, but may this reflect in my words and actions each and every day so that others may recognize, and also want to know more about the Savior and Lord to whom I belong. I’m Yours Lord!

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
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