Two chapters into the book of Judges the people forsake the
Lord who brought them into the Land and gave it to them and follow after the
Baals, the gods of the nations around them.
Baal was typically a fertility god and the worship of Baal required
temple prostitutes as the worship was something like sympathetic magic, the
worshippers did what they wanted the god to do to provide fertility to the
land. Their unfaithfulness to the
covenant meant that the Lord no longer protected them from their enemies. The pattern was obvious and clear, when a
judge ruled over them who followed the Lord they prospered and when no such
judge ruled, they were in distress. What
we see in Solomon's blessing of the temple is apparent here.
Jesus is rejected as Messiah because He didn't do the things
they wanted Him to do. He couldn't save
Himself was the charge some leveled. The
response is that He could except He loved us enough not to save Himself. They also said that if He came down from the
cross they would believe. The response
there is that if He did it wouldn't matter what they believed, the sacrifice
isn't complete until He dies and until that moment their sin and ours
remains. Jesus is in command of the
situation and it looks exactly the opposite.
He has to persevere despite the pain and despite the taunts if He is to
complete the assignment He was given. He
will soon give an even greater sign than coming down from the cross but will
they believe? He was faithful in order
to save those with a genetic predisposition to unfaithfulness.
We know the mystery that was kept secret for long ages,
Jesus is the answer to the human dilemma.
There is no other Gospel and in that revelation we have been given His
Spirit to testify to the truth and to keep us in that truth. Paul expects more of Christians because we
have been given the Spirit to assist us.
He is angry always with those who preach some other gospel which is no
Gospel at all. Richard Foster was right,
" Superficiality
is the curse of our age…. The desperate need today is not for a greater number
of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people." We are called to depth of commitment and
depth of understanding but that requires us to put forth some effort, we won't
get there without immersing ourselves in Him.
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