Dear World, I Think We Should Break Up.

I was reading the book of Judges the other day, and I started to notice a pattern concerning the Israelites.  It seems to go like this:

1)  Be blessed by God.
2)  Get comfortable.
3)  Commit a really bad sin, like idolatry.
4)  Get punished by God.
5)  Cry out for mercy.
6)  Get redeemed by God.

And the cycle begins again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Those crazy Israelites just don't get it, do they?  I'm so glad we're not like them (wink, wink).

It's kind of like a dating relationship, isn't it?

1)  A guy meets a really great girl and she totally rocks his world.
2)  The guy gets a little too comfortable and starts taking her for granted.  Soon, the love letters and  occasional flowers become fewer and farther between.
3)  He does something really stupid that harms the relationship.
4)  She punishes him in some way.
5)  He begs her to come back.
6)  She does, and all is well.  For a while, anyway.

In Judges, God "commissioned" the tribe of Judah to go into Canaan and drive the Canaanites out.  And they did.  Sort of.

The tribes of Benjamin, Manassah, Nephtali, Asher and others "sort of" drove them out, too.

The problem was, the tribes of Israel saw a perfect opportunity to enslave the Canaanites and make them do all the hard work -- and they began to get comfortable.  They got so comfortable, they even began to accept the pagan practices of the Canaanites, and they even began to intermarry.

God sent an angel to warn the Israelites, and in a nutshell, the warning went something like this:

"Stop doing that, or you'll regret it."  (My paraphrase.)

They didn't stop, and they later regretted it.

If we want to learn the lesson that the Israelites failed to grasp, I think we need to do three things:

#1:  Stop flirting with the world.  She's a lousy girlfriend/boyfriend.  You'll thank me later.  You can even tell the world something really cheesy, like, "It's not me.  It's you."

You can't have a passionate relationship with both the Lord and the world.  Our hearts are too narrow.  We'll either love one and hate the other, or hate one and love the other.

And do it quickly.  The world won't like the breakup one bit.  (But God will.)

#2:  Change your phone number.  Actually, my advice is to change your focus, but you get the idea.

I had a bad blind date in college -- it just didn't work out.  When I told her I didn't want to go out again -- ever -- she didn't take the news so well.  She slashed my tires, and even tried to run me over in her car.  I eventually had to change my phone number just to stop the awful phone calls.

When the world thinks it has your number, change it.  Put your focus on God and stop paying attention to those worldly things that would distract you.  I don't know what those things are, but you do.  Movies?  TV?  Books?  The internet?  Wrong set of friends?

Put your focus on something better.

#3:  Get real.  The Israelites had a tough go of it because they didn't obey God.  But we can learn from their mistakes and take obedience seriously.  I think that if an angel of the Lord showed up and told me to stop doing something, I would stop.  Even if it was something crazy, like drinking Coca-Cola.  Or watching professional wrestling.  I think I would stop cold turkey.

But the fact is, we have God's Word, and it's full of good stuff to keep us on track.  His Word is what we need to take seriously.

I wish you well on your break-up.

And if the world says something cheesy like, "I hope we can still be friends," you know what to do.


Blessings -

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