God’s Grief
And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. -Judges 10:15-16
Here we see an inside view of what’s on God’s heart: “and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.” This is nothing short of amazing. That God would condescend to our low affairs, and care so much for His people—even to the point of experiencing grief over our sinful ways—is astounding. Simply put, God is very BIG, and we are all very small. Yet, as God’s people, we matter greatly to Him.
I believe it is in the Lord’s heart to give each one of us victory over sin and the deception that is in the world. Just as the Israelites of the Old Testament, we too have been carried away unto “modern” idols promising us comfort, pleasure, fun, and relaxation. But, as the idols that Israel served in the past, so too are we deceived by the apparent “fun” that the world is having, because it is actually sin: for we are not to love the world, “neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). And as such, sin will deceive us into thinking we are free, when in truth we are truly slaves to our sin.
It was for this reason that God’s heart was grieved at the people’s idolatry. For truly, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). But man cannot serve two masters. He’ll either love the one, and hate the other, or he’ll despise the one, and cling to the other. And when we chose to take a shortcut in life, and live in the “fun” of sin, we are truly choosing to limit God and keep Him from protecting us from deception. We are edging God out.
In the verses preceding the ones quoted above, (of how God had grief at the people’s sins), the Lord says: “Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation” (Judges 10:13-14). For God demands our fullest love and devotion. Is not the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all of our heart? (See Deuteronomy 6:5.) And when we choose out another God, we think we can double-dip and get the best of both worlds, but we’re deceived. God will not share His glory with another.
I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. -Isaiah 42:8
And so we see a deeper insight into why the Lord would be grieved at the people’s sins. It’s not simply that they slipped up: for God had made a provision for that in the daily sacrifices to purify the people, (and today we have the blood of Christ to purify us from all our sins). But it was that the people had utterly backslidden and turned their backs on the One whom they were commanded to love with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And in doing so, the deceiver, (also known as the devil), brought the people to misery when they thought they would have freedom and happiness.
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. -Psalms 81:13-14
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