Judges 1-4:  Never Has, Never Will

It has taken me a while to re-format this blog with the new Blogger, however I have continued on with my readings and nothing has changed.

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died. - Judges 3:7-11 NIV

History repeats and repeats itself. With the fledgling nation of Israel, they kept repeating the same mistakes, following after other gods, and continued to meet the same fate. When they followed godly men, they prospered and experieced peace. When they had no godly man to lead them, they followed whoever was convenient and would promise them something that they would never quite receive.
The world is like that.  It makes a lot of promises, but history proves that they are empty promises at best and most often lead to destruction.  What seems to be the prosperous route always leads to ruin.  There can be no peace without the Prince of Peace.  Look around.  Have any of the promises of a better society ever come to fruition?  We cannot buy, spend, or bargain ourselves out of the situations we find ourselves in when we choose to follow other gods.  Once we've sold our souls to them, we're captive to their whims, and they don't have our best interest at heart...never have, never will.