Read a little more and Judges has some crazy stories in it. The Israelites flit back and forth seemingly like a hummingbird! It's almost like they believe whatever is right in front of their noses.
I wonder though why God is so absent from us in the obvious ways now. He seems to speak to people and send his angels to speak to people and perhaps he still does that and the world is so big we just don't hear about it or don't believe others? But it seems like a very different world now and perhaps that's because we are post-Jesus or perhaps because we are removed so many years from the Bible?
In sermons, the Israelites are often likened to toddlers - in their own world, concerned with only what benefits themselves, changing their minds from one minute to the next. After God delivered the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, what did they do? Complain about the manna that God provided for them each and every day. Their consequence was to wander for forty years before reaching the promised land. The lesson that we can take from this is that God is patient, loving and just - trying to help us learn the lessons that will sustain us in this life. God speaks to us today in His word and sacraments. We are in the world after Jesus' ascension into Heaven - the world that gets more insane every day and where it becomes harder and harder to be a Christian.
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