Blaming God
We should not blame God for our misfortunes
when we've caused these problems
through our flagrant disobedience.
Here's Gene to explain:
So this brings us to Judges chapter 6,
to a man by the name of Gideon,
a very familiar name:
The Israelites did what was evil
in the sight of the LORD. ...
There we go again--we're in that cycle.
...So the LORD handed them over to
Midian seven years, and they oppressed Israel. ...
Let me make a little insert here because
in a couple of weeks, we're going to look at
the book of Ruth.
And we'll look at Ruth.
And the background is that Elimelech,
who lived in Bethlehem, and his wife Naomi.
They had two sons.
They actually left Israel and went to Moab
because there were very difficult times
in terms of making a living.
Now the reason I insert that is that
when Elimelech and Naomi left with their
two sons, and you remember what happened.
They got down there and Elimelech died
there in Moab. And the wife, Naomi, stayed--
and her two sons.
And the two sons married Moabitess women.
One of those women was Ruth--
Ruth the Moabitess.
Now during the time of the judges--
probably during this seven-year period.
During this seven years, when Midian
was in control and oppressing Israel,
that's probably when this family went down to Moab.
To escape from that oppression
to be able to make a living.
And then that's a whole other story and we'll look
at that when we come to the book of Ruth.
Now notice, we read on here:
...Because of Midian...
And this is one of the reasons they left Bethlehem,
and they left Israel, and went--this family:
...Because of Midian, the Israelites made
hiding places for themselves in the
mountains, caves, and strongholds.
In other words, this was a horrible,
horrible situation.
A horrible time of evil and judgment
because of the Midianites that God
allowed to take over and punish them
because of their sins.
Now if you drop down to verse 11 in this
same chapter, we read:
The Angel of the LORD came...
Now, again remember, as we looked at
this in previous sessions.
Any time you see that adjective--
the Angel of the Lord--it is probably
a reference to an Old Testament
manifestation of whom? Jesus Christ.
And it's interesting that Jesus Christ Himself
manifests Himself in the midst of Israel's oppression:
...The Angel of the LORD came and He
sat under the oak that was in Ophrah,
which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite.
His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the
wine vat in order to hide it from the Midianites. ...
In other words, I mean they were having
a tough time even making a living.
That's one reason why this family left
and went to Moab.
...Then the Angel of the LORD...
Again, another reference to an
Old Testament manifestation of Jesus.
...Then the Angel of the LORD appeared
to him and said:
"The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
Gideon said to Him,
"Please Sir, if the LORD is with us,
why has all this happened? ...
Meaning, why are we in such bondage?
Why are we being persecuted?
Responding to what God says--
Jesus said: The Lord is with you.
And he said: Well then why, if the Lord's with us,
what in the world's going on?
So he asked that question but he
has more questions. He says:
Why has this happened?
...And where are all His wonders that
our fathers told us about? ...
Now in other words, Gideon had heard what
happened when they came out of Egypt.
He goes on to say, they have told us--
our fathers have told us:
...'Hasn't the LORD brought us out of Egypt?'...
So if God did all those things bringing us out.
Bringing us across the Red Sea.
Providing for us in the wilderness.
Bringing us into the land.
Taking us across the Jordan River.
Helping us to establish ourselves.
Then what in the world is going wrong?
Why are we in this mess?
And he goes on to say,
But now, that is, Gideon says:
...But now the LORD has abandoned us and
handed us over to Midian."
Well basically what we have here is
a very ignorant statement. A very naive statement.
This is coming from a man who
doesn't understand that his father has
an altar right there in their yard to Baal.
And Asherah poles,
which are sexual symbols
worshiping evil in relationship to
what's going on in Israel.
And so he says to the Angel of the Lord:
Why are we in this mess?
And somehow, he can't even discern
that his own father is an idolater--
engaging in immorality and all kinds of evil.
But see, God once again is reaching out
to a man, in His sovereignty.
His name is Gideon.
Because He's going to use Gideon
to deliver the people.
Because the people are crying out.
In terms of Gideon's ignorance,
notice this observation:
Gideon's naivete demonstrates how
subtle evil is.
He was blaming God for abandoning Israel
and delivering them into the hands of
the Midianites without realizing that the Israelites
had brought this judgment on themselves.
They were responsible for their
horrible oppression, not God.
He's blaming God.
He's saying: Where's God?
Why isn't He doing all these wonderful
things for us?
But again, see God in His grace and
mercy is demonstrating that mercy
to a man by the name of Gideon.
In His sovereignty, He chooses Gideon
to be this deliverer.
But think about us today.
Even in the church age.
Even when we have the New Testament revelation.
Like Gideon, we have selective
memories--don't we?
Gideon had a selective memory.
Or he was just ignorant.
He just didn't put it all together because
of the paganism that surrounded him.
We remember that the perfect will
of God is good.
We've heard that, haven't we?
But we forget what can happen when we
allow our lives to "be conformed to this age".
And Gideon and his family, his father,
were being conformed to the paganism
that existed because of the Midianites
and the Canaanites.
And so the observation is that:
Sin will always lead us into slavery, even as Christians.
Even though we don't even realize it.
And Gideon is an example of a man who
was in slavery and didn't even realize why.
And he's blaming God.
So there's a wonderful verse
in Galatians chapter 5.
Where Paul deals with being free from slavery.
What slavery? Of sin.
And we read:
Christ has liberated us into freedom.
Therefore stand firm and don't submit again
to a yoke of slavery.
It is possible for us as Christians,
like the children of Israel,
to go back into slavery.
Not the slavery of Egypt but the slavery of sin.
And that's exactly what was happening
with the children of Israel throughout
the period of the judges
and really throughout their history.
And so the question for thought is:
What precautions can we take to avoid blaming God
for the pain we've brought on ourselves
and others because we're living
out of the will of God?
Well let me just take you back to
a Principle in Genesis.
Principle number 5, which I call,
Avoiding Rationalization.
And most of us know the story
from which this Principle comes.
And here's the Principle:
We should be on guard against our tendency--
and just underscore that word 'tendency' in your mind.
We should be on guard against our tendency
to rationalize disobedience [and] to
put the blame on someone else.
That was one of the first things that
happened when Adam and Eve sinned.
Remember the story?
When God came through the garden and said:
Adam, what have you done?
And he immediately pointed to Eve and said:
Eve took the fruit, gave it to me.
And then God turned to her:
Eve, what have you done?
And she blamed Satan for what had happened.
Putting the blame somewhere else.
And it's amazing as I have studied
through the whole Bible,
looking for Principles to Live By.
One of the Principles that is reinforced
again, and again, and again, is how
easy it is for us to rationalize.
You see rationalization throughout the
whole of the biblical story.
To rationalize our behavior.
To blame somebody else--
even to blame God.
Even as Gideon was doing in terms of
why we're in this kind of situation.
So an answer to the question--here's the question:
What precautions can we take to avoid
blaming God for the pain we've brought
on ourselves and others because
we're living out of the will of God?
We've got to be very guarded
in relationship to rationalization.
Because that's our tendency--
no matter how godly we are.
If we're not careful, first thing we can
do is rationalize.
And the answer to that--part of that--
to avoid that tendency,
we've got to be teachable.
We've got to be in step with the Holy Spirit.
We've got to be accountable.
If we're not accountable to others in our lives,
we can rationalize.
We can rationalize even when we are accountable.
And that's why we need people to say:
Gene, that's rationalizing, isn't it?
You know, you're not seeing that clearly.
We all need that kind of input in our lives.
And the bottom line for all of this is the way
God uses the Word--
wants to use His Word--
to penetrate into our hearts.
And that takes us again to a passage
that is so critical.
Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, where we read:
For the word of God is living [and it's] effective
[and it's] sharper than any two-edged sword...
It's interesting how the writer there
uses the metaphor, a two-edged sword.
...penetrating as far as to divide soul,
spirit, joints and marrow;
it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
And so consequently, in order to avoid rationalization.
In order to avoid getting back into
slavery of sin, we've got to allow the
Word of God to penetrate our hearts.
But even there, we have to be careful
that we don't--in our humanness and in our sin--
deflect the Word.
Or to use it to our own advantage.
Or to even rationalize Scripture.
I mean, that's how vulnerable we are.
But thank the Lord, we have the body of Christ.
We have the Word of God.
We have the Holy Spirit.
To enable us to walk with the Lord.
Not perfectly.
But to more and more become like Jesus Christ.