Ravaged!

The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years...the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds....the Midianites...invaded the country...camped on the land and ruined the crops...and did not spare a living thing; ...they invaded the land to ravage it. [and] so impoverished the Israelites.  Judges 6:1-10


The Israelites did evil and turned from the Lord.  So the Midianites came and oppressed them.  They were so oppressed, they were forced to live in caves and mountains clefts.  Everything they had was taken from them and ravaged.  This is a people who once brought fear to the land of Canaan.  They were a people who were so massive and "marked by God" that King Balak sent for a medium to curse them. 

Now sin had left them powerless; a ravaged and defeated and cowering people.  The wonders of God ceased to be manifest among them.  And the Israelites wondered "where are the wonders our fathers told us about"?

Sin has done this in our world even today.  It has left us a ravaged and defeated and cowering people.  We shake our fist at God and demand He answer why we no longer see His power at work.  We curse God and say He must not exist because of the powerlessness all around us.

The Israelites also cried out to God and He heard their plea.  He raised up Gideon.  Yet, Gideon responds in a half-hearted commitment.  He only obeys the Lord in the secret; not in the witness of daylight...the witness of others.

The power of God will not make itself manifest in us and through us until we turn to Him and do so with whole-hearted commitment.  God desires one who will follow Him and Him alone.  We cannot be divided.  For a "house divided cannot stand". 

O Lord, God of Israel and all who call on your Name, hear our prayer today.  Help us to walk with an eye single toward You.  May we no longer have a divided will, but a heart passionate for the things of the Spirit.  Amen.