March 31
Judges 1:1-3:30
Conflict is important. Conflict requires one to make choices. It causes one to decide what it is that they stand for. A strange thing has happened over the past couple of generations. When I was raised I was encouraged to fight my own battles. Sometimes those battles were physical in the streets of Brooklyn. Sometimes I won, other times I lost. When problems occured in school, I was taught to speak up respectfully. I took stances which were not always popular with my teacher or fellow students. When I got married young (20 years old), I was lovingly told by my parents that this being my decision, our success or failure would be figured out by myself and my wife. We now live at a time where children are taught not to fight their own battles. Parents intervene at every level of school, even in college as helicopter parents, and even in the job market. When I faced conflict it was face to face, and therefore I was accountable for my actions. Most conflicts now occur in the crazy world of social media, where there is no accountability, only likes. We look at a world that is literally crumbling, but why should we be surprised, when parents have removed such a crucial element from the armamentarium of their children. Sadly, we have forgotten our rich godly history and have failed to pass it on to our next generation. We have allowed our history to be rewritten. Lastly, as a nation, our focus has been on things rather than God. Education, careers, affluence has superceded the pursuit of God.
We read the sad generations that followed that group that followed Joshua into the Promised Land in Judges 2:10-12, "When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger." God is sovereign, and we read why the enemy was allowed to remain among them in 3:4, "And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses." Jesus also allowed His disciples to go through the many trials He faced in His three year ministry, as we read in Luke 22:28-30, "But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
None of us enjoy trials, but they are indeed necessary to cultivate character and to guide one's dependence upon God. Much of what we are now seeing is the culmination of generations who have "escaped" trials. Many of us don't know war. Even in the poorest areas, we live in relative affluence when one looks at the rest of the world. When people fail, they are bailed out by others, often never facing the consequences of their actions. But rather than look behind, we must look forward. Those in Christ are not to fear, but to learn dependence on Him. Nothing about this generation or our nation in general is surprising God. He is sovereign, may we never forget this. The question remains, "What are we to do, as we see the foundations of our society crumbling all around us?" Seek Him. Rely on Him. Lead others to Him, now more than ever.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: