Suffering With Second Best

Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. Judges 10:14

Some very pointed words from the LORD to a disobedient Israel.  The book of Judges is the record of a young nation that struggled with commitment and devotion to the LORD.  The nation, at this point, is only a few generations old.  They came out of Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for an entire generation.  After they died off, God marched them over the river Jordan where they began to take possession of their inheritance.  After Joshua and those who knew him passed away, Israel began a pattern of walking with God and backsliding.  Upon the death of a strong and godly leader, Israel would be tempted to embrace the culture and religion of their neighbors.  In return, their neighbors would persecute and govern them.  This compromise usually took the form of worshipping the false gods of the world.  Each time they were oppressed, they cried out for the mercy of God.  At this particular time, God told them to put their faith in the false gods they worshipped and let them deliver the nation from oppression.  This is pretty harsh, but honest nonetheless.  God often lets us suffer from the choices we made so that we will learn a lesson.  Once that lesson is learned, often He delivers.  Sometimes it is good to sleep in the bed we have made.

My dad did not come to our rescue at the first sign of trouble.  Most of the time, anyway.  He let us deal with the mess we caused.  We wouldn’t learn any other way.  As children, we had paper routes.  Part of that job was to collect fees from our customers and then pay the paper company a certain percentage of what we had collected.  We had this stub book with the dates printed on it.  Each customer had a stub.  When they paid, we would rip off the corresponding stub and give it to the customer as a receipt.  Some customers were not good at paying their bills.  They would have us come back when they had the money.  They saw us coming and didn’t answer the door.  The thing is, some of our good customers were not home.  We assumed they were just like our least reliable clients.  Over time, these unpaid bills can get large.  However, with tips and a rate of reimbursement, we could always cover our obligation to the company.  It was going along fine until a couple of my customers called my father and wondered why I hadn’t been by to collect.  My father went through our stub book and noticed it was more than a few.  Terrified, he made us go to all our back-due customers, no matter how uncomfortable it was, and collect what was owed.  He wasn’t going to clean up a mess we had created.

We can replace God with many things.  We can replace God with many objects, goals, or relationships.  They may meet a temporary desire, but over time, they ring hollow.  They simply do not fill the bill.  This is when the LORD might hold back and let us learn a valuable lesson.  If we have replaced Him, He just might make us suffer with that which we have replaced Him with.  And it won’t be satisfying.  When the very thing that is causing us trouble has replaced God, He just might make us deal with it.  Like the children of Israel who cried out for more than Manna, and God sent them quail.  They had plenty of meat.  It was in their fields.  They had sheep and oxen.  They had all the protein they needed.  Yet, what God provided wasn’t good enough for them.  So, the LORD sent quail along.  While the meat was still in their mouths, they were sickened by it.  They ate it raw and it made them violently ill.  They would not be satisfied with what God gave, and as a result, they had to deal with what they wanted.  The best thing to do is be content with God and with what God offers.  He is the best that can and will ever happen to us.