Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, 17 for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.
If you have ever gone to a buffet restaurant determined to get “your money’s worth” and paid a terrible price of indigestion, you may have sworn never to eat again, only to have the old appetite return. These words from the new nation of Israel are very similar in nature. They had grumbled three days after being led out of Egypt, they had worshiped a golden calf the moment Moses turned his back, and they rejected the Lord, turning to man-made gods. At the end of their wanderings, Joshua renewed the covenant with God by reciting to the people all God had done for them. Then came this response. “Oh don’t worry, we will serve God faithfully!”
Then came the book of Judges and it was quickly apparent that the old appetite had returned. They drifted further and further away until they no longer wanted the Lord as King but wanted an earthly one. They had rejected God again.
We are well intentioned. We have that going for us. We want to serve the Lord faithfully but our appetites for our own desires jump in the buffet line and before we know it, we have fallen away again. Our will to succeed will fail. We need to surrender to the will of the one who stayed faithful, nailed to a cross. We may say we will never sin again but…
Far be it from us.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church