This Love Won't Let Me Go

I was reading the book of Judges the other day, and it reminded me of something I really shouldn't have forgotten. Judges can basically be summed up very simply; the people of God, newly settled in their promised land, forget about God and go off and do their own thing, with pretty terrible results. Eventually God sends a "Judge" to sort things out, get the people back on the right track, get rid of whatever foreign power has over-run them this time, and get everything back on track again. Until the people, safe and secure once more, go off on their own again. Repeat ad infinitum.

My first thought as I read this was "how stupid are they". I mean, these people's grandparents were those who God rescued from Egypt, complete Ten Deadly Plagues, the first Passover and of course the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea - and then there was the whole manna from heaven thing, the giving of the Commandments at Sinai and all that shebang. Their parents had been the ones who settled in the Promised Land - who saw the walls of Jericho fall without a fight, and who had been there as the people of Israel were installed in their own lands. How could they forget God, how could they lose their way so easily. 

But then, they were after all just people. Ordinary broken people, living in the same broken world that we inhabit. And given how often I decide I'm going to ignore God, go my own way, do my own thing, because actually, I know better than him, why should I expect any different from them, just because they lived a few thousand years ago? 

But that got me thinking in a different way. Because what I then started to see in the book of Judges was the story of a God who loved his broken useless people so much that he kept coming back for them, even when they ignored him, even when they turned their back on him, even when they chased after some other God. And if he did that for them, then won't he do the same for ordinary, broken, useless me, even though I don't deserve it either? Wow.

One of the common objections to Christianity I hear is the "inconsistent" portrayal of God between the Old and New Testaments, but if you look at passages like Judges in this context, then the loving, merciful God "from the New Testament" can clearly be seen right there in the middle of the Old - and the story is repeated again and again through the time of the Kings, and into the exiles, with God sending priests and prophets over and over again to bring his people back to him, until eventually he sends his only Son - the ultimate answer, the ultimate expression of love that won't let go.   

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I usually try to add something visual to illustrate these blogs, but this time, I failed to find anything particularly relevant. So I thought I'd add a Dilbert cartoon for a bit of light relief - after all, you can never really go wrong with Dilbert:-