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William T. Howe Ph.D.

March 20, 2024

Rēad to Read …Again


Daily Reading: Judges 6-7

 

Judges 6:10

And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.

 

God’s voice is heard today through God’s Word coupled with the work of the Holy Spirit. Reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit’s presence in the soul is like reading an algebra textbook without knowing the simplest math functions of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It won’t make sense. In the day and hour in which Gideon’s story took place God said that there was a major problem. That problem was that those who were in bondage to the Midianites did not obey God’s voice. His voice was given to them through the Law of God, the Law of Moses.

 

Repeatedly God tried to warn Israel. Through Moses, then through Joshua, He warned them that if they turned from obeying Him and began to serve another god that unbelievable bad things would come upon them. Such it was. Their flocks, herds, and crops were totally decimated by the Midianites. Now, they are hiding in the caves and rocks in the mountains. In their distress they called upon the Lord, He heard them and delivered them through the exploits of Gideon and his three hundred.

 

But it didn’t have to be that way. They didn’t have to go into bondage, hide in the rocks, and become impoverished. But there they were, in such a sorry state. Why? Because they did not obey His voice. It’s the same through each one of the twelve judges found in this book of Judges. The people disobeyed God, were placed in bondage, were supernaturally delivered by the God they disobeyed through the hand of a judge, then, given time and circumstance they reverted into a state of disobedience to the voice of God, and the cycle started all over again. Throughout the entire Bible this cycle can be observed repeatedly. It’s the sad tale of disobedience that stems from the lack of obedience to our loving Father in heaven’s written rules for living.

 

In 1905 the Spanish philosopher George Santayana published a book called “The Life of Reason.” In it he wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  From this quote many similar expressions have sprung. If there is ever proof of its validity it is found in the life of the Israelites during the time of the judges. How often do we fall prey to this same entanglement? We disobey the Lord, learn our lesson, change our ways, and yet, somehow, gravitate back to that same unacceptable behavior. It’s a cycle of the natural life and the living of it, but it doesn’t have to be that way. For God has given to us the Holy Spirit’s power and leadership to guide us from the pitfalls of disobedience into the glorious and blessed manner of life. In the New Testament it is called the “rest.”  Some call it the “victorious Christian life.”  Whatever it is called, living a life in obedience to God’s voice is far superior to hiding in the rocks, becoming impoverished, and living with the constant fear that always accompanies disobedience to His clear, clean and commendable rules of life and the living of it.

 

Dr. William T. Howe

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