Observation: Let's walk through the story of Gideon. It starts with a segment of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites due to their worship of other gods, Gideon is raised up by the Lord to be a Judge of Israel, and here are the next events ...
Good: In faith, Gideon follows the Lord's instructions to the letter, and defeats Midian with only a few hundred men.
Bad: Gideon creates a golden ephod and sets it up to worship it; Gideon initiates the worship of another god named the god-of-the-promise; Gideon takes on many wives and fathers 70 sons; Gideon takes on a mistress and fathers another son whom he gives a name meaning "son of the king" (Abimelech); Upon Gideon's death, Abimelech has all his half-brothers murdered; Israelites name Abimelech king of Israel; Abimelech attacks and kills many Israelites who challenge his authority.
Okay ... so seriously ... the Lord redeems these people from their oppressors, and these people a) IMMEDIATELY return to their practices of worshipping idols and false gods, and b) the people then do worse by creating a monarchy led by an evil murderer who oppresses them more violently than the Midianites.
At the same time, the people are being told exactly why bad things are happening to them. They were told they were being oppressed because of idol worship and their failure to be obedient to Yahweh. They ask for forgiveness and are redeemed. Then they immediately repeat the cycle, even doing worse. And this will bring upon them more punishment.
Application: I know people with self-inflicted struggles in their lives. I'm not referring to the kind of superficial struggles like "I can't afford the European vacation I wanted to take", and I'm not talking about struggles inflicted on them by evil forces, like "my home has been destroyed by war and my family killed". I'm talking about the kind of struggles like "I am depressed and have a miserable life and BTW I believe my life's purpose is to debate politics" and "I am in an unfulfilling relationship with a person I chose to comingle my finances with even though I barely knew them and I feel trapped". I don't want to blame victims, but ... how many of them got into these situations because they rebelled against the Lord's instructions, intents, precepts, and purposes for living?
Don't get me wrong, bad things happen to everyone. That's how satan works. However, with the Lord as context, we can find comfort, strength, and even glory through such hardships. I will claim, though, that people do bad things to themselves when they remove themselves from the Lord. These hardships are different. They impact body and mind, and have as one of their components an active decision to be disobedient to the Lord. And again, by disobedient I don't mean "sin", but rather a repeated behavioral pattern that rejects the Lord's existence and influence in our lives.
Am I being harsh and insensitive toward people with unfortunate problems that they cannot control? Or am I trying to say that, if a person would just obey the Lord, the conditions of their life would be improved.
Israel, and everyone in it, received punishment when they actively turned away from the Lord. Why would we expect any different.
Prayer: Lord, our nation has become disobedient. As a result, we are losing a nation and a culture due to issues that didn't exist and we couldn't have imagined one generation ago. Please, Lord, send us leaders to move us out of these patterns. Help us to return to you in mind and spirit. May we return to your ways, worshipping only you, our Lord and our God. Amen.
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