Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Judges 3:7-11 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs. Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. When the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
GOD IS FAITHFUL TO SAVE US ... FROM OURSELVES?
We talk so often about saving us from sin and death, but what do we really mean by that? We mean saving us from the condemnation that we have brought upon ourselves by our sin. Since the day of our conception we were dead in sin, under God's judgment. Dead in sin we were unable to free ourselves from the slavery of sin, and would have continued under God's condemnation had God not sent His Son Jesus to pay for our sin and free us from eternal guilt and punishment with the forgiveness of sins.
At our conversions God the Holy Spirit brought us to spiritual life and created in us a New Man, righteous and holy before God through Christ. But we do still have our sinful flesh, the Old Man. So we are Old Man and New Man in one person. The Old Man wants to serve the old ways, sinfulness, and so is continually working to get us to sin. The Apostle Paul writes, "I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).
Martin Luther puts it this way in the Small Catechism: "... The old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance and die with all sins and evil desires. It also means that a new man should daily appear and arise, who lives eternally before God in righteousness and purity" (Luther's Small Catechism, Baptism 4). As it is written, "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).
As believers, children of God, when we realize that we sin daily, we want to put aside sin through repentance, and look to God for forgiveness. In order to work contrition and repentance within us, God has given us His Law. But in order to save us from the sin and give us life, God has given us His Gospel.
So with the Israelites in our text. After eight years they came to realize where their sins had brought them. At first thinking they could do without God, they finally understood that without Him the wicked world would have its way with them until they were lost forever. They had gotten themselves into this, now they couldn't help themselves anymore. So they called on the only One they knew could help them.
The Law had curbed their sin, but only God's Good News could put them back on the right road of faith in Him. The Good News was He would not hold their sin against them, or forsake His Promise to them. He would raise up a deliverer who would save them, in the short term, the man Othniel to save their nation. In the long-term, eternal plan, God would raise the Deliverer, Christ Jesus, to save not just their bodies, but the body and the soul of every sinner.
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 TImothy 1:15).
