Why Have Ye Done This?

Judges 2:2 says, “And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?”

The family had recently moved up from California to the Northwest. One morning the Dad got up and looked out on a fresh blanket of snow. He wanted his son to see his first snowfall, and woke him up to look out the window. The young boy looked with amazement and said, “Dad, I didn’t do it.”

We have all done something that we wish we hadn’t done. Some things don’t matter, but when we disobey God it becomes very serious. The Holy Spirit convicts us immediately. We may ignore that conviction. Someday we will come face to face with God, and the question, “Why have ye done this?” 

In verse 4 the Children of Israel “…lifted up their voices and wept.” The final unrepentant will find themselves not only weeping, but wailing and gnashing their teeth. Before that day let us ask ourselves, why have I done this? The Spirit convicts us while there is time to repent and find forgiveness.

The Children of Israel are continually called “the children.” It could be that they couldn’t seem to grow up. They had a short attention span, or more correctly, a short obedience span. That was me as a child. My dad would come home from work and time after time ask me, “What did I say would happen if you did that again?” My answer was always, “I don’t know.” That was stupid. I did know and so did he. Another licking quickly refreshed my memory.

Sometimes it is easy to forget, or ignore, what God tells us to do. The Bible is full of commands, promises and direction for daily living. Sometimes we neglect to read it. It is easy to put off the time of reckoning. The day came when the angel of the Lord (V. 1) confronted Israel. God had done His part in delivering them from Egypt and giving them the land of promise. What has God done for us in America? He has brought us through the Revolutionary War, even theCivil War (where we could have destroyed ourselves), World War 1 and 2, and many other oppressions, so that we could live in the land of the free.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s great revival broke out in our land, giving us strong churches and great preachers and evangelists—Billy Graham, to mention only one. During this same time other “blessings” also appeared: the automobile, baseball and sports, the movie industry, increase in communication, medical breakthroughs, etc. None of them appeared as evil. They did get our attention. They all increased and became our life as we put them in the forefront. Revival and churches slowly took second place. 

Today the churches that sprung up under the power of the Holy Ghost being poured out are in spiritual danger. Too often we have made a league with the inhabitants of the land. When we look at the question, “Why have ye done this?” Let us not respond with, “I don’t know.” There is no way out of the licking. It is better to take it and cry now, change our ways, repent and begin living and walking in the presence of God with the joy of sins forgiven. This is expressed in Isaiah 1:18 and in the first line of the hymn, “The Healing Waters” by H.H. Heimar: “…though you sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow….” 

When we look out of the window and see our sin mess, God only sees snow. We no longer fear, “Why have ye done this?”