"Yet Israel did not listen to the Judges, they prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods. How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord's commands." 2:17
The heart of God was still to make his people a holy nation, but sometimes the Lord may bring oppression, to bring out our obedience. God only does this to bring sin to light, and repentance to forgiveness.
It is the third generation of Israel. The first generation failed to trust the Lord to deliver them, so they died in the wilderness. The second generation got to see the promised land, but failed to conquer all of the land within it. And the third....they failed to remember all that God did over the first two generations, that saved them to the place they are now.
Even in disobedience, God still shows mercy. Mercy was something I learned the day I was saved. It means "not giving a person what they deserve." I deserved death, and Jesus saved me into life. Our disobedience deserves judgement, but God always shows mercy.
Friday morning I was at the prison to attend a graduation ceremony for some of the youth offender boys. (I have shared about this in previous post). 7 of our boys were graduating with their GED and their barber license. One of the boys said this in his speech, "I came in here with nothing, but I am leaving with something." Such profound words from a 16 year old young man who is in prison. But, really...isn't that same for ALL of us? We came to Jesus with absolutely nothing, he saved us out of mercy, and we walk away with the only thing that can free us.
Why would this third generation turn away so quickly from all they knew? Simple - temptations of the flesh. It is not hard to stand for something for so long, and then the enemy can offer one tiny, flashy, temptation in front of you, and before you know it - you are knocked down.
Hidden behind a plaster wall in the house was a nearly 100 year old brick fireplace, that was there for the original wood burning stove in the kitchen. When I found it, my first idea was to keep it intact and just have it to "look cool." But I quickly realized I needed the space more than the cool factor. In less than 30 minutes, the whole thing was knocked down. As I stood and watched it fall from the top, all the way to the floor, the Lord was giving me perspective into so many things.
How is it that something so old, that has stood for so long, can be knocked down into a pile of rubble in such a short period of time? What do you do with this mess? Surely there is something that the brick can be used for again!
The brick has been in a pile just laying around for many weeks. But....the brick is still good. It still has a purpose. It can still be used. The thing is - each brick has to be cleaned, all the mortar has to be chiseled away - one at a time. It is a long, slow, labor intensive process to clean it. When they are cleaned, they are like new. Their purpose is still the same as it was when they were made almost 100 years ago. They can be used again for something.
That something for the house was, to cover up a wall on the outside where a window was removed. Maybe the fireplace didn't get rebuilt, but the brick still fulfilled it's purpose, just in a different way.
Here is the journey of the brick.
standing tall. falling down. in a pile. cleaned up. used again.
that is the journey of me too.
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