[Monday's Devotional] - Waiting for Gideon

Waiting for Gideon After entering the Promised Land (led by Joshua), the people of Israel faced a series of events which can be summarised as "history repeating itself".  Twelve Judges are described, each appointed to restore the nation to God and to rid the nation of the idolatry and sin cycle that they repeated time and again roughly once every generation. We pick up the narrative around 1200 years before Christ's birth.  Deborah, the fourth of the Judges (and the only female) has overseen the defeat of the Canaanites, and a period of 40 years of peace has followed, until: The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.  Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.  They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.  They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.  Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.  Judges 6: 1-6 [NIV] This pattern is repeated many times: God grants a period of peace under a leader or Judge The people ignore and forget about God, turning to other gods God allows the people to be oppressed The people cry out to God God answers by sending a Judge to deliver the people The people are victorious under the leadership of God's appointed Judge …and back to number 1 again… Each of us no doubt faces our own cycle of sin, and many times we are no better at learning the lessons of history than the people of Israel more than 3,000 years ago. Do you allow the cycle to extend for years or come back to God quickly? Are you in a period of peace or are you ignoring God? Are there other gods or idols that you are putting before God today? Are you oppressed but ready to be delivered? Pray that God will rescue, restore and give you his peace. Dave MacLellan   Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!