Theme of the Week: The Book of Judges
Bible Verse: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-58
If “everyone did as he or she saw fit” is a slogan that captures the prevailing lifestyle of the period of the judges, it is just as apt as a description of ours. Ours is a society in which individualism has been enthroned as the supreme good, and the widespread response to authority of all kind is “resist rules.” Ours is an ethic of self-fulfillment and self-gratification. The only authoritative moral voice is the one that speaks from within, and it should be followed wherever it takes us. And all around us, just as in the book of Judges, we see vivid examples of both the seductive appeal and the inevitable disaster of such a lifestyle.
Judges comes to us as a solemn warning of the seriousness of sin. No matter how great our past accomplishments for the Lord, we can fall into great sin if we take our eyes off Him. All believers have feet of clay, and when they try to stand on their own in a society without standards, they will quickly crumble into failure.
But the book of Judges is also “written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). If Judges tells of strong men made weak by self-confidence, it also eloquently describes weak men and women made strong through faith in God and by his work in their lives.
Judges is the great Old Testament book on the Holy Spirit, and it describes the transforming work of the Spirit in making His people adequate servants of the Old Covenant. There is hope in seeing how the Lord gave weak men and women hearts of iron, and it is reinforced by the glorious truth that the Holy Spirit works in the life of the humblest believer today in a way far surpassing anything the Old Covenant believers knew.
We serve a crucified, risen Savior. We live by the power of His indwelling Spirit. We hold in our hands the complete, inerrant Word of God. Our resources in Christ far outstrip anything the judges knew, and our potential for spiritual victory is far greater than theirs. But, at heart, the issue remains the same. There can be no victory apart from a dynamic, obedient fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
God’s strength does not remove human weakness; it transforms it, so people with fearful hearts and feet of clay become people with hearts of iron to serve their God. That alone is the pathway to a spiritually powerful life in a secular and seductive age.
Taken from Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay by Gary Inrig. ©1979, 2005 by Gary Inrig, and used by permission of Discovery House, Grand Rapids MI 49501. All rights reserved.
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