Judging By Your Cycle

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 ... That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel. – Judges 2:8-10

The Book of Judges describes a repeating cycle of events. The Israelites would go along being obedient to God; they would prosper. Prosperity would lead to complacency and self-satisfaction. They would begin to ignore God, becoming progressively more disobedient and distant. “Everyone did what he wanted,” the writer of Judges says several times. They denied authority and willfully turned from the law. In the depths of Israel’s rebellion, God would send an oppressor against them, allowing His people to come under the heavy hand of an enemy. The losses and suffering would cause the Israelites to begin to seek the Lord again. They would repent. God would raise up a deliverer, a judge to lead His people. The oppressor would be driven out. Peace and prosperity would be restored. A new cycle would begin.

I can understand that. We are cyclical beings. We work, we rest. We are one way at midnight and another at noon. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis describes it as “undulation”. We have rhythms. It doesn’t mean that we have to become apostate and then suffer in order to be restored, but it does mean that we will not always be on the mountaintop. It’s a good thing to know. Just because we are occasionally in the shade does not mean we have turned away from God.

Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” If you’ve ever plowed, you know that in order to make your furrow straight, you have to focus on something up ahead and drive toward that. You can’t be looking back, but it doesn’t mean you are plowing all the time.

America is a lot like Israel after the death of Joshua. Generations have risen up who have not seen the difficulties and hardships of previous generations. They have drifted from a God-centered worldview to a position of thinking God is at most an accessory, not something strictly necessary to life. This view weakens our resolve to stand against evil, makes us more accepting of moral relativism, and makes the case for a moral equivalency with our enemies – the Islamofascists, in particular.

Just because there is consensus does not mean there is truth. Deliverance will not come from the crowd. Polling data will not tell us what is right. We may not see billboards for the practical and expedient on the road of righteousness.

Restoration will begin – I think it has begun – in the hearts of individuals. It will not descend in edicts from Washington but it will rise from the Heartland. Those who are chosen by God may never be seen by the press or get written in the history books, but their prayers and their obedience will write the history beforehand.