When God takes trouble to heart

Today: Judges 10-12

Have you ever been around drama people? I'm not talking about people who have a love for Shakespeare or Andrew Lloyd Webber--but people who have rollercoaster emotions and relationships?

Thankfully, I haven't been closely tied to many of them. But if you've ever watched a few minutes of a daytime talkshow or "The Bachelor," you probably know what I'm talking about. As I've read the book of Judges, I feel like I'm watching some drama people--God's people. Throughout Judges and even today's passage, they go through a continuous cycle--disobeying and denying God, crying out in desperation and asking for forgiveness, and then returning to God...for awhile anyway. Take a look at this part of the passage:

Then the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to go to war

also against Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.

Israel was in a bad way!
The People of Israel cried out to God for help:

"We've sinned against you! We left our God and worshiped the Baal gods!"
God answered the People of Israel:

"When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians—

even Amalek and Midian!—oppressed you

and you cried out to me for help,

I saved you from them.

And now you've gone off and betrayed me,

worshiping other gods.

I'm not saving you anymore.

Go ahead! Cry out for help to the gods you've chosen—

let them get you out of the mess you're in!"
The People of Israel said to God: "We've sinned.

Do to us whatever you think best, but please, get us out of this!"
Then they cleaned house of the foreign gods and

worshiped only God.

And God took Israel's troubles to heart...

I love the last line of this, "And God took Israel's troubles to heart..." Wow. I think God's response to the people is so amazing. Time and time again, He forgave them and took them back after multiple betrayals.

It's exactly like He forgives me every single day when I mess up, when I put other things or other people first, when my motives and attitudes are bad, when I'm a jerk to the people around me....and so many other things. When I simply ask Him for forgiveness and try to turn in a better direction, He takes me back and loves me unconditionally--as if I never messed up in the first place. And when things in my life are messed up--even due to my own missteps--He takes my troubles to heart, just as He did with the Israelites. That kind of love is so amazing that I can't fully comprehend it. I wish that more people had a glimpse of that kind of love--the real kind.

Tomorrow: Judges 13-15