F
or the last month or so, I have been steeped in the book of Judges as I prepare to teach it to 200 or so God-hungry women at our church this Fall. It is not exactly what you would call a happy read. Definitely not happy.
In fact, it is raw and jarring. Like rated-R kind of jarring. At points, I’ve even found it to be a bit disconcerting as I seek to wrap my head and heart around some of what goes on. In a nutshell, it is the recording of what happened when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” In fact, the text tells us that “the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of I AM and forgot the I AM, their God.”
As I’ve wrestled through it, I’ve been struck by the reality that it’s not just a recording of Israel’s story back then. It’s our story today. Certainly it’s our culture’s story – we live in a world that has collectively forgotten God.
But, it’s not just the culture out there. It’s right here in me at times. It’s my story. I forget God. Or, at least I sure act like I have.
In the midst of that realization, I took great comfort in this passage from Dale Davis’ commentary on Judges:
Here we are – some in family situations we have messed up; some in emotional trauma; some in grief and sorrow or in the clutches of temptation. Life seems to be a mass of twisted coathangers and disconnected doorknobs. And the glory of this text is that Yahweh is not a white-gloved, standoffish God out somewhere in the remote left field of the universe who hesitates to get his strong right arm dirty in the yuck of our lives.
The God of the Bible does not hold back in the wild blue yonder somewhere waiting for you to pour Clorox and spray Lysol over the affairs of your life before he will touch it.
Whether you can comfortably put it together or not, he is the God who delights to deliver his people even in their messes and likes to make them laugh again; he is the God who allows weeping to endure for a night but sees that joy comes in the morning.”
Amen and praise God for getting into the yuck with us. I hope that encourages you as much as it does this soul-tending girl.
p.s. – if you are a woman who goes to our church and haven’t registered for Judges yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. {wink} Our Monday evening women’s Bible studies are transformational and refreshing. Here’s a link just in case.
Leave a Reply