02/23/2022 Principal's Note
One of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Judges. Judges has a lot of action in it, with famous people like Samson and Gideon. Whenever I would teach this book to my students, they would get excited, and when students are excited to hear God's Word, that makes me excited too!
Throughout the book of Judges, the Israelites fell into a pattern. The great leaders Moses, Aaron, and Joshua had died, and the Israelites were effectively leaderless. As such, they started to wander from God and worship false idols. That made God angry, who then allowed the Israelites to be defeated by their enemies. The Israelites realized the error of their ways and repented, and God sent a judge, a champion in battle, to lead them to victory against their foes. "Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders" (Judges 2:16, NIV 2011). This cycle repeated time and time again.
Fast-forward thousands of years, and here we are, suffering from the same cycle. We have the same loving God who guides us through our lives as the Israelites had; remember, God does not change. As our lives get comfortable, we start to wander. We think more about money, entertainment, or personal gratification than about our worship lives and staying in God's Word. We miss church, ignore personal devotion, and give in to our "pet" sins. Suddenly, something terrible happens. Maybe a loss in the family, a serious illness or injury, or a change in income for the worse. Our first reaction is, "Why, God?!" We can't understand that oftentimes God can use the bad things that happen in this life as a wake-up call. Hopefully, we eventually wise up and realize that we have not been living the life we promised to God when we were confirmed, whether as adults or as 8th graders, and we repent. As we start to live our lives for God again, things improve; but the next cycle is just around the corner.
The Israelites had this problem because they did not listen to God's command. He told them to wipe out every group of people already living in the Promised Land. They thought they knew better and made alliances and slaves of some indigenous people. The idols and worship practices of these heathens influenced the Israelites and caused them to fall away, just as God had warned them would happen. We, too, are tempted by the world around us. We all have "pet" sins, sins that call to us constantly and we are prone to answer, often willingly. God commands us to cut off a hand or gouge out an eye that causes us to sin, meaning get rid of whatever is tempting you and stay away from it! If we don't do that, can we really blame God when bad things happen due to sinful acts we committed?
Thankfully, God sent someone to rescue us as well. The judges that saved the Israelites paled in comparison to our Judge, the King of Kings, Jesus. He rescued us from the most dangerous enemies, sin and death. While the judges eventually died and the Israelites returned to their idol worship, Jesus rose again from the dead and lives eternally! Why bother chasing after the things of this world when we have the greatest gift already? We have been declared "not guilty" because of Christ's sacrifice; now that's a judgment we can live with!
Have a blessed rest of your week!
In Christ,
Principal Bill Fuerstenau