The Change We Do Not Seek and Yet We Need

Things are getting worse for Israel in the book of Judges. We have these stories preserved for us so that we do not follow the ways they took. Consider:

1 Corinthians 10:6 (ESV) Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

The people of Israel once again serve the baals and ashtorehs of Canaan. These gods represented a plentiful harvest and fruitfulness in sex. It's amazing how we serve money and sex the same exact way thousands of years later just as they did! 

When Israel feels the sting of the nations pressing in around them, they again cry out to God:
Judges 10:10 (ESV) And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.”

What's interesting is how God perceives insincerity in their cry for help. Because He turns up the heat in His response. Before Gideon was called, a prophet was sent to remind the people of Israel what God miraculously did for them to make them an independent nation. God then raised up Gideon to save them miraculously from their enemies once again. This time, God is not so quick to simply save and His message is far more serious:

Judges 10:11–14 (ESV) And the LORD said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14 Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”

Note that God is prefacing what Paul speaks of in Romans 1. In times of old God has indeed handed idolaters over to their own idolatry to see the fruition of their godlessness. Here the word is strong and sharp. God will give them over to the idols of their hearts. But the next response of Israel is something interesting and very different from their first cry to God.

Judges 10:15 (ESV) And the people of Israel said to the LORD, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.”

The phrase, "do to us whatever seems good to you" indicates a real change of heart. The people of Israel don't just want God to fix their problems and get them back on track. They want God to act toward them however He sees fit. 

This is a proper picture of repentance and one we need to grasp in our own lives. It is a cry that asks for God to be LORD and IN CHARGE and not just the janitor in our sin party. 

There are many people who come to Christ and see improvements only to fall back into the same repeated sins again and again because they did not come to Christ for Christ. They came to Christ for clean up. This is NOT conversion. It is a momentary religious improvement. 

To come to God in sincerity of heart is to come to Him and submit to whatever HE wants to do in your life. You may want a particular temptation taken away right now. God may be interested in developing patience, trust and humility by letting you struggle along with that temptation for a lot longer than you'd like. But this is God being GOD. He will not be subject to the whims of your temporal desires for pain-avoidance. He will be God who comes and changes you in ways you don't expect so you can become what He has always expected of you. 

It may not be what you planned. And that may be just what you need.

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