“When the people of Israel cried out to Adonai because of Midyan, Adonai sent a prophet to the people of Israel, who said to them: “Adonai the God of Israel says, ‘I brought you up from Egypt, out of a life of slavery. I delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all your oppressors. I drove them out ahead of you and gave you their land.'”-Judges 6:7-9
Israel was in a messed up situation.
Big time.
God’s people were literally on the brink of starvation.
Because whatever food the Midianites and Amalekites couldn’t take with them, they destroyed.
Knowing they had no choice but to cry out to God, that’s exactly what Israel began to do.
And the Lord answered them through an unnamed prophet.
As with many utterances from the Lord, what’s really being said can fly over our heads without knowing the original Hebrew.
God was saying something like this:
“YAHWEH, the ELOHIM of ISRAEL says,
‘I am the ELOHOM who brought you out of Egypt'”.
Let’s not casually gloss over this folks.
God is making it clear that it was He, the God who goes by the personal Name of YAHWEH, who is the one who saved Israel’s butts on more than one occasion.
It wasn’t the Canaanite god BA’AL.
It wasn’t some fertility god called ISHTAR
(“Easter” in our modern day English).
Nor was it any of the other pagan gods that were worshipped across the land.
The Lord was making it clear to Israel that…
It was Me, YAHWEH who rescued you from bondage in Egypt.
It was Me, YAHWEH who kept you alive in the desert for 40 years.
It was Me, YAHWEH who drove out the Canaanites and brought you into this Land flowing with milk and honey.
And it is ME who is about to save your butts again.
The Lord wanted His people to think long and hard why they had fallen on tough times.
In fact, God had already warned His people he would send oppression their way if they rebelled.
He wanted them to understand this persecution from the Midianites wasn’t some kind of test or something.
No, it was judgement pure and simple for their idolatry and rebellion.
The Lord wanted real repentance from His people.
What do I mean when I say “real” repentance?
I’m talking about a feeling of sorrow that results in a change in behavior.
So here’s the takeaway for today.
If you’ve fallen on hard times, take a good look at your life and see where you’re flirting with idolatry.
In other words, what do you consider to be the ultimate source of your well-being, comfort and self-esteem?
Is it the false gods of sex and money?
Are you worshipping the “universe” as opposed to the Creator of the universe like so many new agers do?
Are you terrified of losing certain “friends” who you know you shouldn’t hang out with anyway because you’re afraid of being left all alone and lonely?
Or maybe you just worship all the boxes that society expects you to tick off (marriage, having kids and a good job) so you can feel like a well-respected and decent member of society.
Again, there isn’t anything wrong with any of the above.
In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with money, sex and having a good job etcetera.
It’s only when they become the ultimate and only source of your well-being and self-esteem that things begin to get topsy turvy in the life of a believer.
The question is who’s your daddy?
Who do you recognize as the Master or Superior over EVERY aspect of your life?
Because if it ain’t your Father who art in Heaven, we’ve got a problem.
Don’t bite the divine hand that feeds you man.
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