Sunburn

In the past week, my wife and I both have had to deal with sunburn. She had it worse out of the two of us. Last Friday we each took a little "me" time. She went to a pool, and I took the dog hiking. My wife was in the sun for about four hours, and came back red from head to toe.

Yesterday, we took our canoe out to the lake for a couple of hours. I have a great farmer's tan, but since I usually were long pants, my legs don't get much sun. Since they usually don't burn I didn't put sun block on them, but then again I usually don't sit in a canoe with them fully exposed to the sun. So today I'm sitting in my chair in shorts putting aloe gel on my legs every couple of hours.

But compared to what my wife had, I can't complain. Soon after getting home she began to fell nauseous, and then began to have the chills. Really bad sunburns can cause what is called sun poisoning, and she had it. For the next few days we dealt with those symptoms, and then her skin began to peel and was very itchy.

Honestly, I laughed a little and at times didn't feel all that bad for her. I've never understood people who want to lie out in the sun and let themselves be baked as if they are cookies on a cookie sheet in the oven. I get that tan skin looks good, but it's not worth the burn or the risk of skin cancer as far as I'm concerned. I've told her this all several times, but she loves being tan. And she got burned. Personally, I hate sunburn, but I also hate sunblock, and because I didn't go with my gut and put some on, my legs are fairly uncomfortable today, and will be until sometime Monday.

Both of us know what happens when we're in the sun, but both of us choose not to take the precautions to prevent the negative effects, and we're both dealing with the consequences. And all of this makes me think about what I'm seeing in the book of Judges.

The seventh book of the Bible is the same story line repeated over and over. Israel turns away from God, God removes His blessing and allows them to be captured, the people cry out to God for Help, God raises up a judge to deliver them, freedom, rejoicing, and peace, then the judge dies and the cycle repeats. Over and over and over again for hundreds of years this is what Israel goes through. A sort of spiritual sunburn.

Today I was reading in Judges 10, and this stood out to me, "Then the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, 'We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.' The Lord said to the sons of Israel, 'Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.'" (Verses 10-14).

God gives people over to what their hearts desire. I noticed the same concept the other day and though of the words of Paul in Romans 1.21-32,

"For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

"Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

God does not force anyone to serve Him. God does not force anyone to do what is best for them. But at the same time, God does not pour His blessings out on those who disobey Him and reject Him. Whatever your heart desires, God will give you over to that. If your heart desires evil, and things contrary to God, then that will be the god of your life. But on the other hand, when we fully turn to God, when we fully and genuinely seek Him, He is found by us as it says in Jeremiah 29, and He forgives and delivers us.

Judges 10.15-16, "The sons of Israel said to the Lord, 'We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please deliver us this day.' So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer." God raises up Jephthah, and the people are delivered.

Sadly, for Israel, they continued in their self-destructive cycle, as God said they would if they didn't destroy all the people in the land. But every time the people came to God in genuine repentance, He raised up a leader to deliver them from their enemies.

I pray that we will not be like Israel, but instead that we will fully follow God, not simply live for His blessings and then cry out to Him when we have rejected Him so long that the blessing has been removed. Let our lives be lived to worship the one who blesses us out of His grace. Let us live for Him, and not His blessings.

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you