“And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” Judges 6:10
Israel cried out to God for deliverance. After exhausting every option their pain caused them to finally turn to God for help. (God would rather our seeking Him come from willing hearts rather than from His hand of discipline.) God hears Israel’s cry but before He delivers them
from their oppression He sends them an unnamed prophet. The hard hearted skeptic mocks God for this. “He is uncaring”, they claim “or He would have immediately delivered them.” Yet God knows something important. Israel cries out because they are being
oppressed. Their eyes are on their enemies, the Midianites. They
see them as the problem. God knows Israel needs to understand the
spiritual reason for their condition. They are not suffering because a
nation is more powerful than they are. They are not suffering because of circumstances. So God gives the unnamed prophet two more sentences designed to open the spiritual eyes of Israel so that they will understand why this evil has fallen upon them. The old Negro spiritual says it best, “It is me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer”. Israel must reach thar point as well.
And I said to you, “I am the Lord your God” The prophet reminds the people who God is. “Jehovah Elohim”. I am the only God of Israel. You have chosen to follow false gods, idols of people from the land I gave you. I alone am the one who delivered you and drove out your captors. The words are designed to make the people remember who God is and what His power is like. This should make the people, “tremble, tremble, tremble.” Revival begins when the fear of God shakes our lives to the core.
You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell Israel began to fear the peoples they let dwell in the land God gave them. They started out fellowshipping with people who worshipped idols and then they moved to learning about their false gods. Eventually they began to appreciate and then love them until they were enslaved to these people and their idols. Then the fear began. The fear of men and their idols kept Israel from fearing God. (Us too!)
But you have not obeyed my voice The prophet drops the hammer. Here is the message God sends prodigal Israel and every other prodigal child that has turned his back on the Savior, their deliverer. It is You. You are responsible. You are the one who sinned. Once again Israel must realize and accept personal responsibility for what they have done. It is not misfortune or even the Midianites that caused them to sin. What is the fundamental sin? They did not obey what God had clearly taught them. (See how God links fearing Him with obeying Him?) The word obeyed is the Hebrew word “shamma” meaning to hear. It is first used in the Eden (Genesis 3:8) when Adam and Eve heard the voice of God calling them in the garden after they had disobeyed God.
What can we learn? The statement God gives the prophet shows us a significant truth. God continues to call and speak to Israel even as they sin against Him. He calls them to come back to Him, He warns them of the direction they were heading, He urges them to turn around in repentance. But they refused to listen! They did not, would not, respond – His words fell on deaf ears. “Let Him that has ears to hear.”
Second we see in the blank space after the prophet’s last words a significant truth. The prophet tells Israel they did not hear, did not
obey and then there is silence. Nothing else is said. There is nothing to add. They cried out to God for help. He heard and He
answered. He told them they were the cause of their own grief and sorrow. Sin always does that. Their disobedience brought
these circumstances upon themselves. God continually called and warned them but they stubbornly turned their backs on the
only One who loved them. There is nothing more to say. There is only one action that leads to God – acceptance of their guilt,
repentance and confession of their sin. So God waits. The ball is now in Israel’s court, they must make the decision to return. Like the prodigal son’s father, God’s arms are open arms to them if they return.
If they do not respond to God’s invitation, they will stay in the pig pen. A choice must be made.