All Souls, Langham Place - 01/08/2004

“Go and cry to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” Judges 10:14

The Lord God – the only God – works so hard for us, yet with such mixed results. Look how his own chosen people treated him.

The short-term memory

He’d rescued them, led them, fed them and fought for them - only to find them flirting with the gods of the very nations he had protected them from. Only as His protection was withdrawn, did they begin to squeal.

The long-term problem

It’s our problem – both in and outside the church. A nation can kick God and his word out of its national life, and then wonder at its lack of unity and well-being. Don’t complain! was the Lord’s message to his fickle people. “I’m out of here; see if your new gods will help you!”

The all-time lesson

‘Mankind is unteachable’, said Winston Churchill during World War II. It is up to our generation to prove him wrong. Learn from history, for without it we are uneducated. Supremely, learn from the Bible; from the gaffes of the past, from the heroes of faith, and from Christ, the world’s all-time Teacher.