Hungry and hiding...

After an amazing victory under leaders named Deborah and Barak, the people of Israel enjoy forty years of peace. But after that, it doesn't take long for them to turn back to doing evil again. Forty years is like a whole generation. Was this another example of the people's failure to raise the next generation in the knowledge and ways of God?

As we begin reading in chapter 6 of Judges, we find a people that are crushed and intimidated. Seven years of oppression by their enemies the Midianites have reduced them to starvation - because the enemy hordes kept sweeping in, destroying their crops and stealing their livestock. And not only are the Israelites hungry, they are also hiding: they are so afraid of the next attack, that they start to hide away in caves in the mountains.

Hungry and hiding! That can also be a description of believers in today's society. When we forego making intimacy with God a priority in our lives, not only do we become spiritually undernourished, we're also less likely to take a stand for our faith. We simply "blend in" and are not noticeably different from the non-believers around us. Whether we realise it or not, we are hungry and we are hiding.

The key to change comes when we recognise that God is calling us out of hiding, and that we're called as believers to be salt and light in our world. But first, we need to recognise our spiritual emaciation and allow God to kindle a hunger within us - a hunger for His presence and for His Word. As we begin to be nourished by the Bible and prayer, we will see our strength and our courage increase. We'll start to come out of hiding and to see that our lives can make a difference - in our family, in our town, in our nation or in our world.

As we read further in Judges chapters 6 and 7, we discover one example of how God turned the hungry and hiding into heroes.