At the end of Joshua, Israel says they will serve the Lord, through a renewal of their covenant with the Lord. Part of that covenant was that they were suppose to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land, which they don't. Therefore God doesn't get rid of them either saying that these people will be thorns in their sides, Judges 2:3. Then the generation with Joshua dies and there is this new generation that comes up that apparently was not told about the miracles of God or decided not to believe the miracles they heard about, Judges 2:10. This new generation breaks the covenant with God and God follows through on His discipline, He lets their enemies defeat them. When the Israelites turn away from their evil and cry out to God, He sends someone to deliver them and the Land rests from war until the Israelites turn against Him again. Which the do, again and again and again and again and again and again, etc.
How long does it take to learn a lesson?
How many times does God send us opportunities to be patient, to be humble, to follow His way...
Or if you are one of my pre-schoolers, how many times do you have to sit out for hitting someone to learn that hitting isn't okay?
Some of us it takes just a few times to recognize the opportunities to be patient or not to hit, while others it takes many times. But the only way we learn is through consistency. Having consistent opportunities and having consistent consequences. If you never got another chance to be patient or each time you hit there was a different consequence (positive then negative then positive again), then would you learn to be patient? Would you learn not to hit?
God was consistent. He the Israelites opportunities to follow Him, when they didn't he disciplined them, but He also gave them opportunities to turn back to Him.
Judges 3:7-11; Judges 3:12-14,15,20-22,30; Judges 4:1-3, 23-24
The whole book of Judges is full of examples.
Joshua 23:16 God fulfills all His promises, if He promises to bless you, He will bless you. If He promises to destroy you when you break away from Him, He will. God is a god of mercy and God is a god of justice. Mercy and Justice, not just one or the other, but both things are in God's character.
So true! God is very just--this I know from experience. Consequences are a part of love. If God did not truly love and care about us or want us to be all that we could be then He would not spend time disciplining us. Being disciplined is NOT fun but I think it's that structure that keeps us loving Him. I have one student that I work with one-on-one and he acts better for me then anyone else. He also confides in me more than any other teacher. However, when he is being insubordinate and rude, consequences follow. The first time I sent him to the office I think he was surprised, but he was able to learn to respect me and his peers more. Maybe that is also what God wants to teach us through consequences-He wants us to respect and honor Him as we should. I know, through personal consequences in not doing as the Lord wills, that I do not want to disobey His will ever again. He has gained my respect and honor to Him because of His just ways.
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