March 19, 2022: Day 60 – Judges 6-10 and Psalm 43

We get into the area of Judges that provides little solace for those who would want to follow the Lord.  We begin with Gideon who is chosen by God to lead his people, and he does a tremendous job in battle and conquers with only 300 men against hundreds of thousands of men.  It is truly a miracle that he was able to conquer.  But then look at what happens in 8:27 where Gideon pivots from his battle which saw him victories but only because of the hand of God, to making an ephod which was used to prostitute the Israelites to other gods.  

From there disorder and chaos ensue with Abimelech, who was not chosen by God, this is key, he is not a judge but rather a self-imposed ruler.  He takes the reigns and leads the nation with much infighting until a woman drops a rock on his head.  Not a fun way to die.  We others who rise up to rule Israel but we don’t seen at anytime after Gideon, that they were chosen by God as judges to rule over Israel.  It seems as if they were all self chosen leaders.  We do see the people of Israel turning back to the Lord at the end of chapter 10 as the armies are amassing against them.  Who knows, maybe the Lord will respond?

Psalm 43 is a classic psalm of lament and one that I said much about on Sunday.  You can listen to the sermon if you wanted to see more.