And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. -Judges 2:11
One of the topics that I continually point out among the people in this country is the cycle in which they have been caught up.
Our forefathers told us to learn from the past, a past in which they did learn from and taught unto us through their example and, of course, the lessons in which they taught were given unto them by the Word of God, which taught them and teaches us, their posterity, to return to the old paths. So, they did, and so should we (Jeremiah 6:16).
Yet, too often, we find people who want to test their Creator to see if what He says, He means; and this by the people wickedly departing from Him and serving other gods (Galatians 6:7-8).
William Hendrickson uses a little alliteration of the four “R’s” to describe this cycle that is repetitive in the Book of Judges.
The first “R” means relapse. This is when people forget the Lord and put man in His place. Scripture tells us in Jeremiah 17:5:
“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.”
The second “R” stands for retribution. This is retribution upon a disobedient people.
The degree of corruption (disobedience towards the Lord; Proverbs 7:2) tolerated by the people will be to the degree of judgment upon them by the Lord (Leviticus 26:15-16; Deuteronomy 28:63)!
Then the third “R” stands for repentance.
When the Lord’s chastisements are not taken heed to by the rebellious in bringing about godly repentance (Acts 20:21; 2 Corinthians 7:10-11), He will then bring judgments upon the people to answer His purpose.
The fourth “R” stands for rescue-reclamation-redemption, that is to those who have repented towards the Lord and are set for His purposes in Christ Jesus (Matthew 4:17).
This is the cyclical pattern that we read over and over and over again in the Book of Judges, which, in the end, is the history of a people that have yet to learn the lesson (Hosea 4:6).
