Is God Your Last Resort?

"Again, the Israelites did evil in the LORD's sight...They abandoned the LORD and no longer served him at all.... The Israelites were in great distress. Finally, they cried out to the LORD for help, saying, 'We have sinned aginst you because we have abandoned you as our God and have served the images of Baal.'
The LORD replied, 'Did I not rescue you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistiens, the Sidonians, the Amelekites, and the Maonites? When they oppressed you, you cried out to me for help, and I rescued you. Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods. So I will not rescue you anymore. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen! Let them rescue you from your distress." Judges 10:6, 9b-14

Does God have limits as to how much He will put up with? Does he ever get tired of us and our human fickleness? The Israelites repeatedly sinned, turning away from God and worshipping worthless idols. But when faced with certain annihilation, they always came running back to God to rescue them. Sadly, God was their last resort here. In this passage we see that God isn't so quick to rescue them. God recounts all that He'd done for the Israelites. He was reminding them of all the times HE had rescued them, not the false gods they had worshipped. Then He, the good parent, tells them "NO!" Israel had gone one step too far. He sent them packing back to their false gods. Why? Because God knew their hearts. He knew them inside out. Maybe they had not truly repented and were just giving God lip service. Perhaps they were not truly seeking to change. Maybe their hearts were not fully committed to the LORD. Perhaps it was their attitude, speaking to Him like their worthless idols who were deaf, dumb, and worthless. Perhaps God wanted to drive home a hard lesson.

Now, before we condemn the Israelites for behaving in such a way, we must examine ourselves. If we are truly honest, we too are guilty at times of worshipping things other than God. When we place a HIGHER or EQUAL importance on earthly persuits over God, we have crossed the line of idolatry. ANYTHING that we value as much as (or more than) God IS our idol. Our idol could be money, power, status, connections, or success. Our idol could be our reputations, our good name, our job, our family, our hobby, or our identity. Our idol could also be trusting in earthly things more than God, such as Presidents, leaders, systems, or governments. What do you trust more than God? When we place our trust in the things of this world instead of the God WHO CREATED THIS WORLD, then we are committing idolatry.

God reminds us of all the GREAT THINGS He has done for us. The Bible is full of these reminders. His Word is our spiritual heritage, recounting His Greatest rescue ever - His Son on the Cross for our sins. Should we continue to ignore Him? Do we continue trusting in these worthless earthly idols? How bad does it have to be before we turn to Him? But then, what if we cry out to Him in our darkest hour and He says "No! I've had enough. Go back to your idols for help." But what if those idols - money, power, systems, etc.. - are gone, useless? What then?

Well, let's check out the rest of this passage in Judges.

"But the Israelites pleaded with the LORD and said, 'We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.' Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the LORD. And he was grieved by their misery." Judges 10:15-16

There is a change in attitude in the Israelites in these verses. No longer were they just giving God lip service. They truly repented and turned to God. God loves us. He promises that if we cry out to Him HE will hear us and HE will respond to our need. But, it requires us to truly repent, to put away all other idols and worship Him alone! The last sentence of this passage just really touches my heart. God was grieved by their misery. Wow! Let's stop and picture this. The God of the Universe grieves for our misery! He loves us - and - He grieves - for us!

No, God should not be our last resort. He should be our first and only resort.

In His Love, Cathy