Judges 4:1-7
The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years.
At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’”
As I read the OT, the story of the Israelites, the hero that is weak and forever failing, and in need of constant rescuing I find myself in them over an over again. And even though I know how the story ends, I am forever pulling for them. It pains me to read: “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” because that is me! Like them, I get caught up in trying to be like everyone else. I have a hard time trusting God. I find myself pursuing wealth from my own efforts or deals rather than the blessings from God’s hand. Without realizing it, once again I am compromising my faith in so many small ways that you can hardly tell the difference between me and everyone else.
Maybe I root for the Israel of the OT because in some weird cosmic way I believe if they can get it right, then I will finally get it right. If I read where they finally put away idols and serving foreign gods for good, then I will have cracked the code to my own sinfulness.
The thing is, I am not sure there is any real secret. I’m beginning to see that there really is no code to crack. Just like compromising in many small ways I end up blending in with everyone else, I think spiritual transformation happens but in the reverse direction. For most of us, our conversion is pretty dramatic but after that, our spiritual growth is imperceptible. We can only see it by looking backwards. Little by little I am convicted by the Spirit. I make small change after small change. And maybe after a few years of following Christ, I find myself doing or saying things that flow from a place in me that was dried up before.
The last written history of the Jews leaves us with a picture of a people that can’t seem to overcome idolatry. Then silence for 400+ years. But when we read about the Jews of the new testament, no more idolatry. They had other issues but idolatry was no longer one of them. That gives me hope. The sins that really have a hold over me may take a while and there may be times that seem void of God working in my life, but I will be free.