“Things have never been this bad” (Judges 1-3, Psalm 16, Luke 20)

“Things have never been so bad” – that was what one man told me yesterday about the state of the world. I knew what he meant, and yet there’s a sense that every generation probably feels that, and when you open the book of Judges you see that things have been really bad before.

Is there anything that can prevent things getting worse? We saw the importance of not hindering children from coming to Jesus when we read Luke 18 ( see https://lightandmomentary.org/2024/04/02/what-must-i-do-to-inherit-eternal-life-joshua-18-21-psalm-15-luke-18/ ).

In the book of Judges we see the tragic words “there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD.” (Judges 2:10). We are not told if the parents had failed to instruct their children or whether their children were simply hard hearted, but it is a reminder of the need to instruct each generation about the Lord, or they will forget.

In Judges we see a vicious cycle that gets worse as the book goes on. The cycle is described in 2:11-19, the people forget the Lord and do evil, God hands them over to their enemies, then they cry out to the Lord, God sends a rescuer (Judge) and delivers His people, there is peace for a time, and then the cycle repeats. With each rescue we see a foreshadow of Christ, and the book ends with us longing for a king who will bring lasting peace.

Our Psalm for today shows us the folly of forsaking the Lord and going after other gods – v4 sorrows multiply. Whereas when we go God’s way, even when things are hard we can trust the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places (v6), that He’s working for our good wherever we are, and we will know fullness of joy forever.

“Things have never been so bad” – we can understand what is meant at we look at how bad things are today, but we can see things have been really bad before. What’s more, in our gospel reading, Jesus predicts that they will put him to death (Luke 20:14). This is surely the worst thing that could be done, when the creator came into the world, his creatures put Him to death. How could things get so bad? And yet, through this worst evil in the world was the means by which God would rescue people. At the cross God turns evil in on itself and brings out something beautiful.

Things may be bad, but they have been worse, and they may get worse, but Jesus promises He will return to judge and put everything right for His people. For those who trust Him, there will be pleasure forevermore (Psalm 16:11). There’s a message that we must pass on to the next generation.