[Joshua praying God to stop the Sun by Gustave Doré]Joshua made this famous statement (24:15), and he kept his promise, by the grace and power of the Lord. And the people did as well.
"And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that He did for Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, an hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance...
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." Judges 2:7-10
This Israel was an evil Israel, which forsook the Lord, and followed other gods. The gods of the heathen. And the Lord ws angry, and yet still compassionate. The Lord sent judges to the people, but they wouldn't listen. So the Lord allowed the heathen nations to live within Israel's land, and there was much sin, and disregard for the Lord. The Lord was testing them, and they failed.
So the Lord caused Israel to become captives, and heavily burdened to these nations for 8 years.
So Israel cries out to the Lord, and the Lord comes to their aid, and they have 40 years of peace.
Did they learn from all this? Nope.
"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eg-Lon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord." (Judges 3:12)
And so they are a captured nation once again. And this time for eighteen years. But they cried to the Lord, and the Lord came to their rescue once again.
Amazing, isn't it. Not that Israel kept forsaking the Lord, but that the Lord would hear their cries!
Nevertheless, it is sort of crazy that this people didn't simply learn that the Lord is good and gracious, and He loves to care for His own, and if they would worship Him, and love His word, and obey it, then their lives would be full.
But we'd rather have the heathen's commands, and things, and life style. I know I struggle with the pull of this world, and the tempter, and my flesh. But, I thank the Lord every day for His Spirit which abides with me, so that I can abide within the Lord's word, and love.
We sang a new version of "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing", in church yesterday, and Greg, our pastor, mentioned how the third verse always grips him the most, and I thought the same thing. I would guess all those who love Christ would experience the same gripping of the heart when we sing this great hymn's third verse:
"O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above."
May the Lord truly bind our hearts like a fetter to His abiding Spirit and presence. Amen.
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