shygbible: February 13...

Judges 1-3
The Cycle of Sin

“Once again”. It seems to be repeated over and over in this story of the Israelites. Despite Moses and Joshua’s final words: TO REMEMBER and TO OBEY, the Israelites FORGET and DISOBEYED – and as a result they found themselves without God’s favor. And the cycle of sin continues.

It seems that we miss so much of God’s story because we don’t understand the cultural importance of a name. Often times I have thought … if these guys were just named Bob and Bill this would all be so much easier to remember. But so much of the story is in the meaning of a name. Take chapter 3 of Judges.

The King of Moab is named Eglon. Do you remember back in Genesis 19 when Lot had an inappropriate relationship with his daughter? Well it resulted in the birth of Moab and the Moabites were descendants of Moab. So here we have a nation who is physically related to the Israelites, but has no true relationship with them. This could easily describe many Christians today – those who attend church and call themselves “Christians”, but don’t have a true relationship with Him. Satan has done a great job of dulling our spiritual walk to where all we do is go through the motions – and we never grow spiritually. Eglon means “circle”. Amazingly, Eglon is the perfect symbol for those who do not have a true relationship with Jesus and simply go through the motions – over and over again – never going anywhere.

Then there is Ehud. Ehud is left-handed and carries a double-edged sword. He is the deliverer sent from God. And his name? It means “I will give praise”. Ehud’s dad (stick with me) was named Gera which means to “chew the cud”. I know – SICK! But in Bible language, chewing the cud symbolizes meditation. Seriously – like going over and over the same thought to get everything out of it you can.

So now, let’s look at this story knowing the meaning of the names of the characters. The cycle of sin repeats. We see a very “large” problem – people who call themselves “Christians” but don’t have a true relationship with God. But God provides a way to be delivered and to kill the cycle of sin. Meditation upon God’s Word brings about (or in this story actually gives birth to) praise. And the people are delivered from the cycle of shallow Christianity.

Wow! What a challenge. The way we defeat the enemy (Satan) and stop the cycle of sin is to (1) meditate on God’s Word, (2) give Him praise, and (3) be delivered from shallow Christianity and enter into a true relationship with Him.
Today's lesson has been an adaptation from : http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/studies/online/judges6.htm Check out this website for some more great Bible study resources

Check out these scriptures:
Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Hebrews 13:15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His name.”

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit.”

Ephesians 6:17 “Take the … sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

This song might be a little old school and slow... but, the ancient words are what we're reading right now. They bring us hope, faith, wisdom, questions, and knowledge of a life of Salvation.