When I was a preschooler my mother would read Bible stories about the Israelites doing evil again and worshipping idols again. I would ask in frustration, “Why did they do that? Didn’t they realize God would punish them for their disobedience?” As a child I was perplexed as to why a nation so blessed by God would turn right around and forsake Him.
The account of Israel in the book of Judges is the story of a nation that began with a great spiritual heritage. “The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel” (Judges 2:7). But it’s a story that ends tragically with the nation completely forsaking God and experiencing His wrath and judgment. Why? What happened?
1. They became prosperous and forgot the source of their blessings. Moses had repeatedly warned Israel that when they got to the Promised Land, their prosperity would become a source of pride and self-sufficiency. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day” (Deuteronomy 8:10-11). It’s ironic that when people obey God He blesses them but those blessings create an environment where disobedience is more likely.
2. The parents failed to transfer their faith to their children. Moses had encouraged the Israelites, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). But the Hebrew parents became spiritually passive and just assumed the kids would believe and do the right things. And, “another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10).
3. The sinful nature of man naturally gravitated to evil. “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them” (Judges 2:11-12)
I recently saw a tee shirt that read, “I know right from wrong. I just prefer wrong.” That’s true—the heart of man is deceitful by nature. The Apostle Paul confessed that there dwells no good thing in our flesh. Once people drift from God and are free from His spiritual restraints they run to do evil as surely as a pig heads for the mud.
4. They disregarded God’s repeated warnings to repent. Israel “provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist” (Judges 2: 12b-14)
When things got a little uncomfortable or when God’s appointed judges brought the gavel down, there were shallow, limited, temporary efforts to return to righteousness. But the gravitational pull of evil continued sucking the nation into a downward spiral until eventually God gave the nation over to outside forces and Israel was led into captivity while the Promised Land was run over by barbarians. How sad that a nation with such a glorious beginning had such an inglorious ending.*
*Any similarity between this account of the nation of Israel and any current country is purely coincidental…if you are totally spiritually blind!