*WISDOM FOR TODAY.*
*WITHOUT GOD (2)*
*Scripture Treasure.*
Judges 17:6 *In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.*
*Insight and Highlight.*
When a person can not live with God, he/she will live with the devil.
*Scripture Commentaries.*
The book of Judges began the narration of Israel's exploits after the death of Joshua.
ln Judges 1, Israel had no leader but enquired of God who would go to battles with the Cannanites. God chose Judah to go first.
This began a series of battles, victories, and occupation of lands by some tribes of Israel.
These great exploits of land possession by the tribes of Israel, how the people served God in the days of Joshua, Joshua's death, and burial were given full mention in Judges 2: 6-9.
Joshua did not name nor leave a successor.
After his death, there were perverted and polluted religious practices.
Chaotic disorderliness was the order of the day. No kings and no leader.
The nation fell into low moral standards, Judges 2:10-13.
The direction and leadership of Joshua soon faded away when he died.
This story of Israel shortly after Joshua died teaches us a few things.
First, it teaches us how important a leader is, how dangerous it is for a leader not to name a God's chosen successor, and the danger of a people without a leader.
Second, it teaches us that we must never think we have everything we need and abandon what we were doing before or abandon the way we used to walk in the company of our leaders.
Judges 2: 7 says there were *"....elders that outlived Joshua,...."*
Though Joshua was dead, Israel abandoned the company of these elders.
From Israel *".....arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel."* Judges 2:10.
They thought they had got all they wanted and could now do what they wanted but not so fast.
Before God, they had forsaken Him, and His anger was hot against them, Judges 2:13-14
God was angry with them and *"Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.* Judges 2:15.
We must never think we have all we want. The people would suffer for thinking or acting this way.
All they thought they had became a snare to them.
A formerly strong twelve tribes became weakened by the same people whose land they had conquered and possessed.
Judges 2:21,23 tells us that God said
*I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:*
*Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.*
They thought they could live without God and abandon the company of elders who outlived Joshua, but they could not. They became captives to their captives. They became captives to the very thing they chose to follow.
Judges 2:10 says they *".....bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way."*
What God does never dies, but you can kill it by abandoning the legacies that made you who you are.
Do you ever think you have all you need and abandon the legacies that made you?
Do not be like Israel in the aftermath of Joshua. Though Joshua was dead, to reject his ways and legacies at his death was the same as rejecting the living God.
Joshua was an example of a leader who laid Godly examples, and his leadership outlived him.
The people suffered, and their sins went unabated. This was the beginning of a long-term struggle with sin that led to their eventual captivity to Babylon!
The people thought they had God but did not have Him.
You can not live without God!
*Remorse corner.*
Though Joshua died, he had elders who outlived him. Though the elders died, it was not proper for Israel to live to desert Joshua's legacy, which made them to be who they were.
*Call to Word action.*
You must never belong to a generation *".....which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.*, Judges 2:7.
*The Christian clarion duty.*
It was not surprising that the people were recorded as doing evil in the sight of the Lord. If they would not obey God, it would be evil in His sight. They did not obey God, but they obeyed their desires.
*Prayer.*
Lord, help me never to abandon or disregard You, thinking l have all l need, in Jesus name.
Good morning all, and have a blessed day.
God bless you.
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