Have you ever read the book of Judges? It’s scandalous! There are stories in that book that would make Game of Thrones fans blush. Some of the tamer examples include:

• A king is killed when a man plunges his sword into his enormous belly so far that no one could see the hilt.
• One of the judges had to kill his own daughter because of a promise he made to God.
• Another judge was forced to fight an army of 130,000 with only 300 men … and won.
• And then there’s Samson.

All of these judges, men and women of valor who were raised up to save Israel from the nations around them, would never have been needed had the Israelites just kept their covenant with God. In fact, the theme of the whole book is repeated throughout.

• “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” - Judges 2:11
• “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 17:6
• “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 21:25

When Israel’s leader, Joshua, died, God even warned the Israelites about what would happen. He’s omniscient, He knows what’s coming. Here’s what He said, through an angel: “I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” - Judges 2:1–3 God promises to keep His covenant with Israel, He will be their God and they will be His people. All they had to do was worship Him and Him alone and keep His laws. The Lord tells them, “You’re going to fail. In fact, you’re not even going to try.” As a consequence, God says He’s going to give all the other nations that He held back the chance to challenge for their land. He said they would be a thorn in the side of Israel. I don’t know if you’ve ever been caught on a thorn, but it hurts and it keeps hurting. Isn’t that just like people, too? When things are good, we have no need for God. We rely on only ourselves and that’s what gets us in trouble. We see this in the New Testament in the book of Romans. Paul says in Romans 1:24-25, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” When we are left to our own devices, it will always lead to sin and dishonor. We will always exchange worshiping God for worshiping His creation. God knew that with the Israelites and let them do it, knowing what the consequences would be. Thankfully we worship a God full of grace. We worship a God who does not give us as Christians what we deserve. Because we deserve to be left to our own devices, just like Israel deserved to be left to their own devices. And if they were, the book of Judges–actually the entire Old Testament– would be very short! Time and time again, when Israel gets in trouble they cry out to God. And each time the Israelites cried out to God, He answered them. He provided a judge, a hero, to lead them out of the trouble they found themselves in. And all of those judges were just foreshadowing of the One who would save us from our sin once for all. Look at what Paul says to the church in Ephesus. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” - Ephesians 2:1–9 There were no microphones in Paul’s day, so we will have to picture instead a *scroll drop* after he wrote this. We were dead. In all our sin, all our passions, following the world, following the devil. We. Were. Dead. But God. God, who is rich in mercy, rich in love for us, made us alive together with Jesus. How? By His grace. Nothing else, nothing we can do, so that we can’t boast. It was His grace and His grace alone. The Reformers had a cool latin term for that. Sola Gratia We were saved by grace alone. Just like the Israelites, time and time again. The difference is Christ just had to save us once. His death on the cross saved us, paid for our sins, made a way for us to be in relationship with Him, once for all! We were dead, but God raised us up with Christ and seated us next to Him in the heavenly places. By His grace alone. Sola Gratia by Rob Trahan