God Takes Us Back!
If there's one thing we have a lot of here in Springville, it's pizza places. They're everywhere here! But I want you to imagine this morning that, against all odds, another pizza place is opening. The owner of this new place is a nice man who is looking forward to serving the best pizza possible to the community.
Of course he has to hire all new workers to staff the restaurant. And there's one worker in particular that the owner really works with. This worker didn't really have any experience, but the owner hired him anyway, taught him the ins and outs of the job, and gave him a position of trust at the latest and greatest pizza joint in town.
Then the problems started coming. First, the worker was late. Then, he was caught stealing money out of the register. The owner, understandably, is angry. "How could you do this?! You're fired!" But the worker begs him to let him keep his job. And the owner listens; he takes him back.
But it's not too long until it happens again. The worker steals from the register again, and this time it's even more money. But he begs for mercy, and again, the owner takes him back. Later on the worker steals food and supplies from the store. Again he's fired. Again he begs. Again the owner takes him back. Then finally he is caught taking the secret pizza sauce recipe from his pizza place and selling it to the pizza place across the street. You better believe the owner is angry; he not only fires the worker but picks up the phone to call the police. But the worker begs him. He pleads for his job again. And the owner takes him back.
What do you think of the worker and the owner in this little story? The worker -- well, of course, he's a thief. He's not trustworthy. He got caught all those times, and it's pretty obvious he's never going to stop. He's obviously taking advantage of the owner's kindness, and he intends to keep on getting whatever he can out of the arrangement. This guy definitely doesn't deserve to be working in the restaurant; if anything, he should be in jail.
Then there's the owner. Doesn't he just seem more sad than anything else? He's taken advantage of again and again, but he keeps coming back for more. Maybe you've heard this phrase: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Well, shame on this owner! At this point, it's his fault the guy keeps stealing, right? He's basically enabling the behavior by taking the worker back so many times. How does he expect to run a business this way? Sure, he seems like a nice guy -- nice to a fault. How could he be so foolish?
But be careful who you're calling foolish. Because that nice (but perhaps naive) owner in that story sounds an awful lot like God himself in our text from the book of Judges. And instead of one thieving employee, the entire nation of Israel is guilty of crime after crime.
We hear that "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord." (Jud. 10:6) They started serving and worshiping other gods -- that is, false gods. And they didn't just do this for a few false gods, they worshiped all sorts of them from everywhere. (Jud. 10:6) As you might expect, God is beyond angry. So he does something about it. We read that God "sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites...Israel was in great distress." (Jud. 10:7-9)
Things didn't go well for the Israelites. And that helped them realize they'd been wrong. "The Israelites cried out to the Lord, "We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals." (Jud. 10:10) At first, this doesn't seem to affect God at all. He still seems very angry. God tells the people, "Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!" (Jud. 10:14)
But the Israelites didn't stop there. They said to God, "We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think is best, but please rescue us now." (Jud. 10:15) Not only did they say that, they also got rid of their false gods and served only the true God again. And then we're told that God "could bear Israel's misery no longer." He sent them one of the Judges -- in this case a man named Jephthah -- to rescue them. God took his people back and saved them.
Now, if this were an isolated incident in the book of Judges, it wouldn't seem so bad. But it's not. This is just one of many nearly identical incidents that happen again and again throughout Judges. The people sin greatly. God is angry and lets them get into some trouble. The people cry out for help and turn back to God. God rescues them and takes them back.
This isn't God giving the people a second chance, or a third chance. This is dozens, hundreds of chances. Really, it happens all throughout Old Testament history in one form or another. It happens all throughout the Bible. People sin. God is angry. People repent. God takes them back.
When you look at that objectively, it really seems pretty foolish. God, at least according to our reason, shouldn't have taken his people back. They would only turn away again. They couldn't deserve his forgiveness less. But he forgives. He takes them back.
Jesus makes the same point in his stories of the lost sheep and prodigal son from today's Gospel. It might seem irresponsible for a shepherd to leave the 99 sheep behind to go off looking for the one sheep who couldn't stick with the group. Leave the sheep behind! Cut your losses! It might seem foolish and naive of that father to take his good-for-nothing, wild-oat-sowing son back into his home. Maybe take him back as your slave, but as your son? How could he be so foolish!I hope you're getting the point of all this. I hope you get the point of the owner of the pizza shop and his worker. I hope you get the point of Israel and God in the time of the Judges. I hope you get the point of that wandering sheep and the shepherd. I hope you get the point of the loving father and his prodigal son. It's your story! It's the story of you and God.
Every single day, you sin against God in thought, word, and deed. Sometimes, you sin so much and so awfully that your very faith is weakened, if it doesn't disappear altogether. And God hates that! That's why he fills his Word with all sorts of things about that sin. How it brings his wrath. How it brings death and hell. And God lets your sins and the sins of people around you cause all sorts of problems. He brings you pains and troubles. And he keeps speaking against your sin in his Word.
And when we hear those words, they cut us deep. God hates me when I sin. God hates these sins, and he has promised to punish me for it. Please, Lord, don't leave me! Please, Lord, give me another chance! I won't keep hurting you; I won't keep sinning. Just, please, have mercy on me! Hear my prayer! Help me and forgive me!
And he does. God listens to us. God takes us back. And he doesn't just do it for us once, he doesn't just give us a second chance. He gives us dozens. Hundreds. He does it again and again. God takes us back.
And again, according to our own reason, when we really think about it, that's just really foolish of God. He should never take us back. He should know we're just going to sin again. He should know we're going to disappoint him. It's unbelievably foolish; it's downright unfair on God's part that he should show us mercy, that he should forgive us and take us back, when that's exactly what we don't deserve.
But you know why he can take us back, right? The answer is found at the cross. The answer is found in the one hanging, hurting, dying on that cross. The one person who never deserved an ounce of his heavenly Father's anger got the full brunt of it on that cross. The one person who truly didn't deserve death got it anyway on that cross. That anger should have been yours and mine. That death belonged to us. It was so unfair. So foolish.
And thank God for it! Thank and praise him for his unfair love! Rejoice in his foolish forgiveness! God takes us back! In Christ, we have God's grace, his love, his forgivenes! We didn't earn or deserve it, but it's ours. In Christ, we have life and salvation. We earned the exact opposite, but it's ours anyway. Because God so loved the world. Because he loved us.
Friends, don't forget that for a second! Don't let a day go by without marveling at God's unlikely, undeserved, downright unfair forgiveness and love for you! When you experience the difficulties of this sinful world, when troubles come your way, give thanks that you're not getting the real trouble you deserve. Thank God that he is giving you an eternity in heaven where there will be no problems, no tears, no worries, only joy and happiness and love. And he did it all through Jesus his Son our Savior!
And when you sin, when you fall -- and you will -- take God's Word seriously. See his anger and wrath against sin. See his punishment of hell. He wasn't joking around! See God's anger against sin at the cross! So when you sin, beg for God's mercy. Ask his forgiveness for Jesus's sake. Turn from your sin and serve your heavenly Father again. Repent! And don't doubt for a second that God will take you back. Never fear that he won't forgive you. He always forgives. He always loves! You can be sure of that when you look at Jesus. You can see his love, his forgiveness for your sin, when you look at the cross! Keep your eyes on him and rejoice! God takes us back.
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