Judges 10:10-16

Hey, everyone! Happy Monday! :)

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Judges 10:10-16
And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!"
So the LORD said to the children of Israel, "Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress."
And the children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray." So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.

It looks like maybe the Lord has finally had enough of the sin-and-rescue cycle the Israelites have been in ever since He delivered them from Egypt. He's tired of a people that only turn to Him when they get tired of the slavery that is a consequence of their own sin. So He tells them to go call on the other "gods" that they have chosen to follow. There's just one problem: Israel knows that those "gods" don't actually have any power, and it will do them no good to call on them. Now they are at a point of complete desperation for God's deliverance. What are they going to do?!
They come back to Him and say, "We've totally blown it. We know that. And You can do whatever You want to us. Please, we beg You, whatever else You may do, please deliver us." But then--with no reason to think that God will actually deliver them--they put away the false gods they had been following, and turn back to serve the Lord. They are demonstrating hearts of true repentance--"even if You don't deliver us, we will serve You." And suddenly, God "could no longer endure the misery of Israel". True repentance moves and touches the heart of God.

Father, as hard as I try to follow Your will, I know there are still times when I blow it. How glad I am You never give up on me! But help me not to take that for granted; help me to learn the value of true repentance, of coming back to serve You just because You are God--not for anything I want.

May the Lord richly bless you with all that He is!

Dancing in the rain,
Haley "SunShine" Miller
"Exhort one another daily while it is called 'Today'" (Hebrews 3:13)
Mornin' SunShine Website