What do you notice first in this picture of our new backyard? Our new fire pit? Maybe the dogs running or that it was windy enough was to blow my little bit of hair around?
It’s interesting what we notice first.
Reading through the book of Judges in the Bible, it‘s clear that the entire nation was far from God during most of that time.
As Judges 17:6 describes it, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
And all too often what was right in their own eyes was wrong in God’s eyes. And they didn’t really seem to care until consequences came.
With that as the backdrop, I found it convicting to read of the anger Israel had when one group was involved in wickedness.
Judges 20:2-3 says, “And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. 3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?”
They were ready to go to war over the sins of others but all too quick to ignore their own sins. I’ll admit that they were responding to some pretty serious wickedness, but we should always notice our sins before we notice anyone else’s.
In the New Testament, Jesus says it this way: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)
We need to make sure we’re usable before we expect God to use us to impact or influence anyone else.