The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years, and they oppressed Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east came and attacked them. They encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land, even as far as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.  Judges 6:1-4 CSB

For the next few days, I want to talk about Gideon. The Israelites, as you know, had a history of doing well for a while and then messing up and getting back into idolatry. God would be angry and punish them, they would cry out to God, and after a while He would restore them and they would do well for a while and repeat the whole process all over again. At this particular time, God had allowed them to be oppressed by the Midianites. He did this because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so God handed them over to Midian (Judges 6:1-2).

It is very important that we understand that our sins are not without consequence. God will not turn his head while we sin and do what we want to do and then turn back around and bless us. It doesn’t work that way. If we sin, we pay. It’s just that simple. Now some of you are reading this and thinking about people that you know that perpetrate evil and seem to thrive. They will pay. We are told in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I spent a period of time in my life thinking that God would understand my sin and give me a free pass. Boy, was I wrong. It just doesn’t work that way. Oh, you may enjoy your sin for a while, but when you pay, you pay big time. In our scripture passage today, the Israelites are paying a hefty price for their sin of idolatry. They have put other gods before God. In the first commandment God tells us to put no other gods before Him. He tells us not to make an idol for ourselves out of anything and not to serve an idol or bow down to them or worship them. He tells us in Exodus 20:5 that He is a jealous God, He tells us that He will bring judgement on those who disobey Him but will show fruitful love to those that keep His commands. Is there any thing in your life that you put before God? Does anything get the first and best of your time and your money?

There is no little sin and there is no big sin, sin is sin. We must avoid sin. We must pray daily for God to fill us with our Holy Spirit to help us to resist the temptation to sin. The Ten Commandments are given in Exodus chapter 20. I strongly encourage you to read those today. Read the Ten Commandments and look at our world today. It’s as if they have been thrown out the window and in many cases, they have. People complain about them being displayed. They should be on every billboard, in every public building and we should have them taped on the mirrors in our homes and the dashboards of our vehicles. We should always be mindful of them. If you think you might have too much trouble remembering them, just remember the two greatest commands which sums up or covers the Ten Commandments. First Jesus told us that we are to love the LORD our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. He then said that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). This means that we put God first. It also means that we have the same respect for our neighbor and their thoughts and their property as we do our own.

Romans 1:24 says that there will come a time when God gives us over to our evil desires. When this happens it will be too late to turn back to Him. He will have given us over. So, I strongly encourage you to humble yourself and seek God with your whole heart and cry out to Him to heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Have a great day!