Our Rollercoaster Ride
Judges 2:11-16
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. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
As a kid I enjoyed riding roller coasters, and I couldn’t wait to ride the newest coasters that opened in California. To celebrate the Nation’s Bicentennial, a park named Magic Mountain built The Revolution which boasted the first roller coaster with a 360 degree loop. The next year Disneyland built Space Mountain, an indoor roller coaster, lit completely by black lights in such a way that the rider cannot see the tracks. Although closed now, the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas had a roller coaster in which the tracks were mounted on the outside of the Hotel. Roller coasters have been entertaining and thrilling people for years ever since the first modern coaster opened in France in 1817. New York’s Coney Island Cyclone has been in continuous operation since 1927 and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The one feature of roller coasters that everyone knows is the continual ups and downs of ride as the car follows the tracks.
After Joshua died God did not assign another leader for the Israelites or rather no leader is listed. The book of Judges opens with the Israelites end story of their conquering of the land of Canaan. We are told the Israelites had asked God for instructions and were told which tribes were to attack which Canaanite peoples, most likely through the priests, but that is not Scriptural so don’t take it as such. We are also told they Israelites did not drive out all of the Canaanites from the lands. At the beginning of the second chapter, God sent an angel to the people. God told the people that He told them He would not break His covenant with His people and they were not to break theirs with God. The people were not to make covenants with the Canaanites and were to tear down all the Canaanite alters, but the Israelites did not do this. God told the people He would not drive them out of the Promised Land but these people would become a thorn in the Israelite’s sides and their gods would become a snare to them. And this is what happened.
We are told that after the generation of people who had seen Joshua and knew of the Lord had done for Israel and abandoned Him for the gods of the Canaanites. The verse mentions Baalim, but this is used to include all the Canaanite gods. The Lord was angered by this and He allowed foreign peoples to conquer the people and make them their captives. Whenever the Israelites went out to fight the invaders, God was against His people and could not stop the foreigners. The Israelites repented of their ways and asked God to help them, and God raised up a judge to save them.
This is the story throughout the book of Judges. The Israelites would worship and follow the Lord. Eventually a generation would come that did not worship God. God would send people to invade and conquer the Israelites. The Israelites repented of their ways and asked God for help, He would raise up a judge who would lead the Israelites until their death. At this point the entire roller coaster ride would begin again. This up with worshipping God, then the downward track to the worshipping of other gods to the down of being conquered to the upward track of returning to God and regaining their freedom.
The book of Judges covered a period of time of some 330 to 480 years, experts are not entirely sure, but we do know that it covers the time between Joshua’s death and the calling of the last judge, Samuel. Bible experts also do not know if Judges is a collected work, written at different intervals during the time of the judges or if it was written at one time, meaning it was written after the judges. There are twelve judges recorded in the book along with the nations the judges were called against, some of them include the Moabs, Canaanites, Midianites, Ammonites, and the Philistines to name some. All of these peoples, these conquerors, are the bottom of the downward ride of the roller coaster.
And others in the Bible have also ridden the roller coaster. Many times during Abraham’s life he did not fully trust in the Lord. He feared for his life on a few occasions, before he became the promised father of the Israelite people; how can you become the father of a nation if you’re dead? King Saul disobeyed God’ servant Samuel on many occasions and on his last ride to the bottom, he watched everything God had given him taken away. Even King David sought his path instead of God’s on a few occasions and rode the coaster to the bottom.
We are also on a roller coaster ride, just like the Israelites. During the times in our lives that things are going well, we are on the top of the coaster. But while at the top of the coaster, we have the tendency to forget where all the good comes. We tend to rely more on our abilities and ourselves, and thank God less and less for what He has provided for us. We then become our own god; and our abilities our idol. We then start the downward trip on the coaster, the same the Israelites took when they forsook God. And like the Israelites we find ourselves on the bottom of the ride; the idol of our hands have failed us and we have failed ourselves. We call to God for help, to bring us out of the situation we have put ourselves in. And God will listen and answer our prayers and bring us out of the mess and lift us back up to the top of the coaster, where, unfortunately, the ride begins over again. So very much like the Israelites in Judges.
It seems as though we have been on this roller coaster ride ever since God created people. Adam and Eve were riding high on the roller coaster without a car in the world. But this wasn’t enough; they needed to be just like God. They listened to the promises of the devil and took the track down, beaten by the conquering armies of sin and hell. But while at the bottom of the ride, as Adam and Eve were blaming everyone, even God, for their sin, God came to us, without anyone asking, and told us He would give to us a Savior, someone who would take the sins of His entire creation as His own and willingly suffer the righteous punishment of the Father for those sins. With payment fulfilled, God forgives our sins.
But no matter how many times we ride the roller coaster, the last ride will be the one we face upon our deaths. We will start the ride finding ourselves in the presence of the Lord. The joy and love we feel being at the top of the ride will soon be replaced by the fear and horror we will feel knowing we are standing before the Judge of eternal life, and knowing perfection is required. At the bottom of the roller coaster, we examine the sins we have committed throughout our life. We know the times we have broken the Commandments, we recognize that at the very least, most of our sins we have committed willfully and purposefully. We will believe we cannot enter into such a perfect afterlife, not with the thoughts and actions we have done in this life. But, even if we have Lucifer standing near us as a sort of prosecuting attorney, with him pointing our failures to God, trying with all his wile and deviousness to have us accompany him into hell, God will say to the faithful “I find no sin in this person. Welcome to Paradise, my child.” And we will shoot back up to the top of the roller coaster, and the ride will end, with our entrance into Heaven.
We will always be on a roller coaster ride while we are here on earth, we cannot escape this. We will have ups and downs as our sinfulness resists the will of the Lord. We will constantly find ways to pull ourselves out of God’s hands and call for help when we can no longer tread the muck and mire of the world. But God will always be there to help us out of all situations; just don’t be too surprised if you find yourself in the muck for some length of time, God just might need you there. What we really need to strive for is to board one of those kiddie coasters. Live our lives in such a way that the downs are not all that far down so that God does not have to pull us that far up. The ride is smoother and slower, one that has less stress and perhaps even more fun and certainly one in which we will go against the Commandments less, and on the good side we have not had that rough a ride when it’s all over.
As loving Christians we need to show our Christian family, and those who have not yet come into the family, the advantages of riding that kiddie coaster. For other Christians, we can show them they will be sinning less against the Lord, hurting God less with our actions. For those we are trying to bring into faith, we can show a less stressful life and perhaps one that is a bit more fun. But as always, we should strive to sin less because it is how God wants us to live. Actually God wants us to live perfectly, without any sin. But God knows our failings and our weaknesses, and because we are in faith with Him, He accepts our offerings with love and our best as perfect.
People have always had an up and down relationship with God, the book of Judges merely brought this to the forefront. During the up times we have denied our will and we are completely in God’s hands. It is when we try to asset ourselves and serve our will that we go on the downward track and find ourselves with problems and need to ask God for His help. Then our journey on the upward track begins as we follow where God leads us, and our desires and wants become what God wants for us. We then find ourselves back on top, waiting for the next for us to do as we want and take the ride back to the bottom. We may not have God-appointed Judges to lead us during the down times, but we do have family, friends, Church family, and pastors that can fill that role. They know how we feel and what we are experiencing as share our roller coaster ride. Amen.
