Where are the Judges?

I have been reading heavily in the book of Judges recently.  It is disheartening to read about the Israelites completely forgetting about the LORD time and time again, only to end up far from the blessing of the promised land and under the rule of an evil king.

To be clear, the Israelites had brought this judgement upon themselves.  After the situation gets bad enough, they finally realize what they have done and cry out to the LORD… and the LORD raises up a judge to deliver them.

Maybe I am not seeing things clearly, but it sure seems to me that this is not just a story from the pages of history.  This actually feels like a story from today.

Election 2012 is heavy on my heart tonight.  As the results were coming in from around the nation, I continued to ask myself, “Is this really what the people want?”

We really want to support homosexual marriage?!  (Maryland, Maine, and Minnesota all voted in favor of recognizing same-sex marriage -a stance that is clearly not Biblical)

We really want to force employers to provide (at no cost) their employees with contraceptives and drugs which directly cause abortion?!  (Hello, Obamacare)

The list could go on and on…

As I listened to the radio reports of Election 2012, apparently we do want to support these things.

Sometimes feeling like a stranger and an alien in the world is not all that difficult.  After all, these are not my values.  I am regrettably a part of the state that turned blue at the last minute and paved the way for the re-election of President Barak Obama.  But it was not my vote that caused this!

The Bible doesn’t record it, but suddenly I find myself wondering if there were any children of Israel who were trying to plead with Aaron, “Don’t make the golden calf!  Don’t make the golden calf!”

Earlier this afternoon I was listening to the radio and heard about a man who witnessed first-hand the atrocity of China’s one child law.  A woman that he knew had given birth to a little girl, and the father demanded that they “put this one aside” so that they can try again for a boy.

“Put this one aside”… What an interesting way to say, “let’s put this child to death.”

I hear that and my heart breaks.  How could anyone be so selfish and care so little for human life?

And how are we any different?!

One nation kills babies so that the family can try for a “better” baby.  Another nation kills babies because they are just plain inconvenient.

How is one any better than the other?

God help us!

Where are the judges?!  Where are the men so filled with the Spirit of God that they will stand up and right this terrible wrong?!

Wake up, church!  Like Gideon, we are hiding and scared, but it is time for us to rise up and be the church that Christ died for us to be.

Check out this passage from Judges 6:

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years…

…Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (Judges 6:1, 11-14 ESV)

Can we admit that we have done evil in the sight of the Lord?  Can we repent?  Can we go in the strength that we have, sent by God, and make a difference in this world?

I think we can.  I think we must.

Let’s pray for our President and for our leaders, but let’s remember that the true hope of the world is Jesus Christ -not the President.

The true hope of the world lives inside of us -His church.

The judges are hiding, unaware that they are actually mighty men of valor sent out by God to save their nation.