Where is there distress in your life? Where are you burdened and suffering? Do you know that God wants to rescue you? He wants to restore you. But first, he wants you to learn the lesson he has for you here so you don’t just come right back to this place of suffering once again.

This week we’re in a new book of the Bible. We will make our way through Judges. This is an Old Testament book with an unstated author. Many believe it was written by the Prophet Samuel about 1,000 years before Jesus. Regardless, we know this … 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” With confidence we know God wants to teach us from his word and help us do what is right so we can overcome what has been wrong in our lives.

Could you agree that maybe there’s been something wrong in your life? Maybe your heart has gotten a little twisted or your priorities are out of alignment. And because of what is wrong, you are living in a life that has fallen short of God’s best promises. But the good news is, God doesn’t want to just leave his girls burdened and suffering. He wants to teach us so we can do better.

That’s what we’re going to learn today from Judges chapter 2 & 3. Lord, help us to realize what’s wrong in our lives and teach us to do what is right. And God says, “Okay, my girl, let’s get to work!”

The author of Judges literally tells us what the entire book is about in 1 paragraph. He sums it up in chapter 2, verse 16-19, “The Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers. When the Lord raised up a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the Lord took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They went after other gods, serving and worship them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.”

A judge here is not a legal authority of court. Rather, a judge is a military leader divinely appointed by God. The judge not only lead the people to victory, but he lead them back to a right relationship with God. But, the problem was, the people would be given victory, and eventually they would drift. They would drift in their commitments, drift in their priorities, and eventually end up back in their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Isn’t this us? God rescues us from one mess, makes a way and gets us out … but eventually we begin making the next mess for ourselves and we are back to suffering again. There’s something wrong in our lives and God wants to show us what that is and teach us to do it right.

Judges 3:7-8, “The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. (Now, here’s what they did wrong.) They forgot about the Lord their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles. (This means they put other things before God. They trusted in something other than God. We are 100% guilty of the same.) Then the Lord burned with anger against Israel, and he turned them over to an enemy King. The Israelites served that enemy King for 8 years.”

So, what had happened here was their sin had left them in bondage. They were left to serve a master that held them captive and made their life miserable.

My friends, nothing has changed. Yes, we’re thousands of years later, but we’re still doing the same thing. We’re given the victory, then we’re growing complacent. With complacency comes contempt. We get so comfortable that we forget who saved us last time and we start doing our own thing. Little by little, God just gets pushed out. And that’s how we end up in bondage. We end up with a master in the form of an addiction, in the form of a warped sense of self, or in the form of an overly busy life that demands all our time. And there we sit with our master and we become miserable.

Has work become your master? You’re slaving away to serve that master and you have absolutely no life left.

Has that relationship become your master? You’ve given up everything to make someone else happy enough to stay, but you’ve lost yourself in the process.

Whatever has become your master will eventually make you miserable because you have replaced the one true master of your life who brings peace and fulfillment … that is God.

After the Israelites served the enemy king for 8 years, they finally came to their senses and did something different. Verse 9-11, “But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Othniel. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge. He went to war against the enemy King, and the Lord gave Othniel victory over him. So there was peace in the land for 40 years. Then Otheniel died.”

All God’s people had to do was cry out for help, and God sent a rescuer. With that rescuer, they lived in peace for 40 years. 40 years is a long time to be blessed, and eventually you forget why you’re blessed. Eventually you forget how bad it was before God rescued you. Eventually your priorities shift and you begin the drift.

So, the people drifted.

Verse 12, here it comes. “Once again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord gave another enemy King control over Israel because of their evil. The Israelites served him for 18 years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord again raised up a rescuer to save them.”

The first time it took them 8 years of living in bondage to cry out to God. This time it took 18 years. 18 years of bondage to an enemy. 18 years of slavery. 18 years of life getting worse and worse. Why in the world would they wait so long?

For the same reason we do! We think we can fix this on our own. We think God doesn’t care about our little problems, so we don’t ask. We think the next thing is going to be our answer, until it’s not. We think if we just try harder it will change, but we’re only left exhausted, frustrated and worse than we began. All while God is saying, “If you will cry out to me, I’ll rescue you.”

Keep reading in Judges and it’s the same cycle again and again. God rescues his people, they grow complacent over time and go back to old ways, and they wind up in bondage to an enemy until they finally call out to God again to rescue them. And they wait longer and longer to cry out to God, while each time the bondage grows worse and worse.

This is a cycle. A cycle you only stay stuck in if you choose it. Let’s simply NOT choose it.

We can cry out to God here, he can rescue us, and we can stay committed to him. We can stop the drift so we don’t end up in the enemy’s bondage again. We can continually call out to God as if we need him today as much as we needed him the first time he rescued us. Because actually, we do. We desperately need God. Every single day we need him.

Without God we will mess this thing up royally. That’s just the truth. Without him we will drift ourselves right into the enemy’s hands and be absolutely miserable. Lord, don’t let me drift. I make space for you, now please keep me close to you.

If you’ve been drifting away from God, recognize the cycle and call out to him now. Don’t wait. There’s absolutely no reason for you to wait until things get worse. God is so merciful to respond. Scripture says, “The Lord takes pity on his people who are burdened by oppression and suffering.”

Lord, don’t let us drift back to where we were. Save us now before it gets worse.

God works through his people. He rescues through his appointed and anointed ones. If you recognize the cycle and you’re back to drifting again, today is the best day to ask for God’s rescuer. You were never meant to rescue yourself.

If I can be the one to help, my hand is reaching out for you, Sis.

Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com