“Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him,”
“Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”
“But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”
If you have dogs you have done it. Went casually into the backyard and stepped in it. Not a fun thing to do. When it happens everyone knows it. You go from walking normally to walking very weirdly hoping not to spread the doggy doo any further. What is the first thing you do? You wipe yourself off or your shoe clean. The next time you step into the backyard you will be watching for those land mines even more than you did before.
Israel stepped in it again so to speak. Verse 6 tells us that they, “again”, did evil in the sight of the Lord. If you are a Christian then the Holy Spirit is alive inside of you. He is the expressed glory of God guiding you and helping you that Jesus himself told us would come. The Israelites, like us, again and again walk casually into sin. So what is the response of the Lord? He gives us over to our sin. In this case, the Israelites were given into the hands of the neighboring kings of the Philistines and Ammonites. For us, it may look like our habit getting way out of control or that bad relationship you entered into messing everything up but you refuse to end it. Whatever it may be, the Lord will let the sin take its course. Romans chapter 1 explains this very well.
When sin gets our lives into a mess that we cannot clean up on our own, we cry out to the Lord. Verse 10 is the Israelites crying out for the Lord to come fix things. We all get to this spot. The Lord hears us and explains something we have to do. The Israelites had to humble themselves and realize that they deserved the consequences of their sin saying “Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” The next action was getting rid of the foreign gods among them and serving the Lord. As a result of this, the Lord says that He could bear Israel’s misery no longer and sends them a man named Jephthah. A son of a prostitute to save Israel.
Today, I want you to notice the outline of walking into sin. Our lives get wrecked and then we cry out to the Lord. He hears us and sees if we can continue in sin and be happy/fufilled. Of course we cannot, which is the reason the Lord gives us over to our sin, to realize our dependency on Him. We then have to actively get rid of the things we have built up against the Lord. It could be drugs, alcohol, over- eating, relationships, anger, past hurts, or unforgiveness to name a few. Just like stepping into that doggy land mine, our lives can also run out of control and everyone knows it. But we serve a loving Father who cannot stand to see His children in misery. The next step on this train is watching for the person in your life who will lead you away from the mess. Your Jephthah; an unlikely source.
Walking into sin is something we all do. As long as we are human, we will let sin into our lives. I can say that the more you walk with the Lord and read His word, your walk will become more like Jesus and learn to master it. Cain let sin master him when he killed Abel. Jesus, on the other hand, mastered sin using the words God had written down in the Bible to defeat the devil’s schemes while He was being tempted in the desert. Watch your next steps, they could be leading you towards the Lord or into sin.
Let It Go 
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