Weary of Misery

Judges 10:16 (HCSB)
16 So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the Lord, but He became weary of Israel’s misery.

God called His people out of the Wilderness (spiritual immaturity) to the Promised Land (spiritual maturity) for a purpose. They were to conquer the land, throw down strongholds, and move from dependence on God (manna) to faith in the sustaining Word of God (the food of the land). They were successful for a season. They conquered many people. They saw the demise of entire people groups, but they did not complete the job. There is a common phrase found in the history of Israel: “They did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord”.

How many times they fell away from the Lord and came back I do not know. It would take me too long to count. One thing I do know. God gets tired of it. He is longsuffering with His children, but He is not impractical. Judges 10:16 seems to be the first time in the Promised Land that God became fed up.

One thing strikes me. He was not weary of their sin or their sinfulness. I’m sure He was not a proud Father at that moment, but the scriptures show us an insight into God. He was weary with their MISERY.

How many times do we, as believers who have crossed the Jordan into Spiritual maturity, fall away from God and return to Him in sackcloth and ashes. We have made “rededication” a regular part of Sunday. We seem to live in a constant pattern of Spiritual Mountains and Valleys. I can’t help but think in a mature walk with God, those hills and troughs should even about a bit. Our Spiritual life should, at some point, stop looking like a seismograph during an earthquake and start looking like a steady line pulled tighter by an ongoing pursuit of the Blessed Hope, that Glorious Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the potential to do great things for God, but we spend our every waking moment realizing our stupidity, worthlessness, and weakness. We have equated Spiritual Brokenness with Spiritual Maturity. It is important to spend a little time in sackcloth and ashes. It is necessary to understand who we are in relation to God. But, it is for freedom we have been set free. We are not conquerors; nay we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us and gave Himself for us.

This theme is found elsewhere in the Scriptures. Misery is being Lukewarm. If you don’t care about your sin, you are cold. If you are on fire, you are hot. If you care about your sin, do nothing about it, and stay miserable all the time, you are lukewarm. Jesus says in Revelation 4 that people who are lukewarm make Him want to puke. Sounds serious, huh??

God hates our sin. It is antithesis to His holiness. Sin does not compute in the mind of our Holy God (if that makes any sense). But, what makes God weary, what makes Him sad, what causes Him to look at His people and want to try something else, is seeing those whom He has given Victory living in defeat. It is time to understand that we have not traded in our shackles for shame. It is time to grow up and JUST STOP SCREWING UP SO MUCH. Why would anyone want to join a miserable group of people led by a miserable pastor that asks those miserable people to admit how miserable they are every Sunday? God’s greater than that! Know therefore that Yahweh your God is THE GOD, the Faithful God, who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands. Know your God. Know your Victory. Reading this may make you feel miserable. If it does, good. Feel it for a moment and then leave misery for the devil. He’s gonna need it.