A Renewed Mind

The April issue of Christianity Today had a brief interview with David Plotz, an editor at Slate who is described in the interview as an agnostic, Harvard-educated, Reformed Jew, “with no real religious commitment.” Boredom let Plotz to open a copy of the Torah. Surprised by what he read, Plotz decided to blog through the Old Testament, a process which has brought him closer to becoming an atheist. I am not writing to comment on the interview or Plotz’s blogs (which I haven’t read), but I did find one of his remarks very interesting. In answer to the question, “What were the most surprising stories?”, Plotz responds, “If there is any book of the Bible that is just a pure, visceral pleasure to read, it’s Judges, because it is so crazy, and all kinds of insane stuff happened. It’s intended to be shocking.” 

I recently finished reading the book of Judges again myself and somehow, after so many readings, a “pure, visceral pleasure” is far from what I discover there. I find it instead to be very disturbing. It has its moments when the victorious strains of the orchestra begin to swell (as when God gives Gideon victory over the Midianites), but quite suddenly the low melancholy of a minor key is reintroduced (as when Gideon later leads Israel into idol worship).

I would agree with Plotz that all kinds of crazy and insane things happened there. And, I would agree that some of its content should shock us, though I doubt that either the biblical author or the God who inspired him was counting on shock value. Given the modern 24-hour news cycle with endless stories of the still-deepening effects of man’s depravity, very little seems to shock us anymore. It seems to me that a more fitting description of the “shocking” content would be “tragic”.

Rather than reading like the front page of a scandal sheet, Judges reads more like a Shakespearean tragedy. Anyone who has read carefully through Judges has heard the quiet refrain that closes the book: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Over and over, we find the sad, costly, and painful consequences that result when people turn from following God and the way that He has set before us through His word.

The “shocking” content could cause evangelicals like me to think of the growing immorality in a post-modern (or modern, for that matter) culture and warn the culture of God’s coming judgments. Surely, there are parallels. The post-modern world has rejected the existence of an objective God who exists apart from us and who determines what is true. Therefore, there is no one to hold us accountable for our actions. What would the result of such a world be? Could it be anything less than a world in which “Everyone does what was right in his own eyes”? Look at tonight’s headlines and consider how many stories could aptly carry that phrase as a subtitle. Sadly, God’s judgments for such “enlightened” godlessness are not merely future; they are all to present. There is always a high price to pay for sin.

Nevertheless, there is a greater tragedy and an application that I think has priority for evangelicals. These people who did “what was right in their own eyes” were God’s people. It was the Israelites who rejected God’s rule over them. It was God’s people who abandoned the God who had chosen them, called them, saved them, and given them His word. It was God’s people who decided that they had a right to determine what was good and what was evil. And it was costly to the people and to the kingdom. They stand as a warning to us to be very careful to fear the Lord.

Christians today need to look very carefully at how we live and ask God to show us how we are like Israel in the days of the Judges. How do we determine what is right in our own eyes? Where do we follow the culture and the wisdom of men rather than the word of God? What sets our agendas and priorities? And, what will it take to lead us to repentance, faith and renewal?

The evangelical church—and local churches like ours—need to ask the same questions of our corporate life and witness. How many of our methods are learned from the academy and Main Street and Madison Avenue? How many of our programs are reactions to the political hot-buttons of our day? How eager are we to know and follow the objective truth of God’s word rather than court the subjective spirituality of our culture? With little introspection on these points, I think most honest churches would have much to confess. And, most importantly, together will we repent, seek the Lord, and follow Him?

After his reading through the Old Testament, Plotz found God to be so unmerciful and cruel that he questioned: “Do I want such a God to exist? I don’t know that I do.” (He goes on to note that “As Jews, we don’t have the comfort of the New Testament to fall back on”—very telling comment.) Yet, when I read even the book of Judges, I find a God who is merciful, long-suffering, and eager to restore His people and save them again and again and again. So that even as the book ends with that tragic line, there is the hope that God’s people will return, and God will rebuild.

Let us pray that God will cause His people to return to Him in our day, and that we will see Him restore His people once again according to His grace and mercy.