The Futile Cry

“Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.” (Jud 10:13-16 AV)

The futile cry comes when we hang on to what got us in the mess to begin with, yet expect the LORD to get us out of the mess.  This is what the children of Israel are doing here.  They are in another situation of persecution.  Yet, they are hanging on to the idols of their captors.  How foolish to ask the LORD for release when they will not let go of the very thing that got them there.

There really are three things the people did to garner the mercy of the LORD.  First, they accepted whatever the LORD would choose to, or not to, do.  Whatever seemed good for the LORD to do with the exclusion of rescuing them.  Which means, if the LORD chose to add to their affliction is some other way, they were good with that.  Second, the put away the wickedness which got them there in the first place.  Third, they served God even in the midst of their self-inflicted trouble.  This cry was productive because they fixed what they could in the mean time!

Several years back, there was this fella we knew who needed help.  He was at the end of his rope.  He was a habitual drunk.  The LORD allowed me to lead him to a saving knowledge of Christ, but he struggled with the booze for the remainder of his life.  I spent several visits at his place trying to help him out of one fix after another.  He was getting a handle on it, but that we always that one little bottle stuck away somewhere.  There was always a relative who would slip him a twenty for food, but he would turn around and buy a pint.  God could not help him until he did all three.  He was willing to do the first – accept consequences.  He was willing to do the third – come to church.  It was the second he could not do.  His cries went unheeded and he died from a horrible cancer.

Futile cries are the worst.  The LORD sees our pain but can do nothing about it because we want to hang on to that which is causing it.  A futile cry is a sad cry.  A futile cry can become a productive cry if we are willing to take action before the answer comes.