Fickle

The Israelites were definitely a fickle people. It showed not only in their relationship with God, but also in their relationship with a man named Jephthah. In fact, there’s a very definite parallel shown here.

Jephthah had been rejected by his half-brothers (and assumedly the elders of the city) because he was an illegitimate child, the son of a prostitute. They essentially kicked him out of the house saying, “You’ll never share our inheritance.”

But when Israel was in trouble and in need of a general to lead them in their fight against the Ammonites who were oppressing them, they said to Jephthah, “Yeah we rejected you before, but we’re turning to you now. If you help us, we’ll make you our leader.” (Judges 11:8)

That’s what they basically did to God throughout the book of Judges.

When things went well, they turned their backs on God and worshiped idols.

But when things went bad, they pled with him to deliver them, putting away their idols to serve God once again.

It’s amazing to me the mercy that God showed them. God knew their hearts. And he had told them, “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” (Judges 10:14)

Yet when they continued to cry out to him, it says he finally “could bear Israel’s misery no longer,” and so he sent people to deliver them. (10:16)

How about us? Are we as fickle as the Israelites? As long as things are going well, we ignore God and just do our own thing, essentially serving ourselves. And only when we get in trouble do we turn to him and ask for help?

Or do we have hearts that are true to him all the time?

I love the prayer of David when he prayed “give me an undivided heart.” (Psalm 86:11)

St. Augustine put it this way,

I find no secure place for my soul except in you, and in you I pray that what is scattered in me may be brought together, so that no part of me may be apart from you.

Sometimes when you are working within me, bringing my scattered self to you, you draw me into a state of feeling that is unlike anything I am used to, a kind of sweet delight.

I know that if this spiritual state were made permanent in me it would be something not of this world, not of this life. (Confessions X)

May our hearts never be fickle concerning God. Rather let us have hearts that are undivided, loving and serving him.