Tuesday, July 30: “Repetitive Consequences”

Judges 2: 13, 14: “So [Israel] forsook the Lord and served Baal and he Ashtaroth. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel , and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.“

As it turns out, Joshua was not only a military leader, he was also a prophet. He had hardly turned cold in the ground before the people’s love turned just as cold. They chose gods different from that of their fathers, the God Who had brought them into the Promised Land. Thus followed the promised consequences. When, in misery, they returned to Him, they were restored. Back and forth it went, like a bizarre badminton match; because free will without consequences is not free will at all.