Israel's Sinful Cycle-Is It Any Different Than Our's? Part III

For those of you who have kept up with the past two posts on this subject of Israel's cycle of sin....this is the third part in that series. I hope you got to read the first two posts I put up. If not then I'm sorry you didn't get to. I don't have those notes anymore and my original site is gone. If you have read them all then I pray they are helping you like they have me to realize some things about the cycle of sin in our own lives.

Judges 2:10b "...and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel."

God responded to His people's sin by punishing them. The people had rejected God as King and they had no human king to lead them. They had nowhere to turn.

Because God had compassion in spite of their disobedience, He raised up judges to govern them. These judges were ordinary people. They became military leaders as well as political leaders. The judges led Israel to victory. Their victory was both spiritual and political.

The cycle that is repeated over and over and over again in the book of Judges is sin -> servitude -> supplication -> salvation. (Hey...look Bro. Tim...all "s" words...he,he,he). The cycle always began with Israel sinning. God punished the children of Israel's sin by way of oppression and attack by her neighboring nations. After they endured a time of servitude they would finally call out to God. God in His mercy heard and responded to their cry. He would raise up a judge and then give them deliverance from their enemy.

For a while all was going well. During this time it was a time of rest. But after the judge would die they would forget the lessons they had learned and go back into idolatry.

This same cycle was repeated over and over again. We sit back and wonder why they didn't learn their lesson after the first time. Well...if you think about it they were no different than we are. How many times have we been like the children of Israel and repeat the same sin cycle in our lives over and over again? If we'll be honest with ourselves we'll realize we are no different than they were.

We all need to know that this cycle doesn't have to continue in our lives. In the next post I'll go into how to break the cycle. It is possible if we'll just get it set in our hearts and minds that we can break it and just do it.

PS...if you are a regular visitor to my site (or even if you're a new visitor) please leave a comment so I can link to your site from your name and add you to my list of sites I like to visit. I lost all my links when I lost my page. Thank you BUNCHES!!!