Mission Drift

June 25

Read: Judges 2:11-19

Mission Drift

In businesses and organizations there is a phenomenon that they call “mission drift”. There is this sort of pull - stronger at certain times than others - that draws away from the core purpose and meaning of an organization. Sometimes organizations catch it and can return to their “roots”. Other times, they lose their way and eventually crumble. We are the same way… we suffer from “mission drift”. When left to our own devices, we wander off… lose our way. Sometimes we even do this intentionally - running away from the true goals God has for us.

This passage from Judges shows us just that. “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them.” (v.11,12) Whether it is the generation who “knew not the Lord nor what he had done” or “the people of Israel, (who) lifted up their voices and wept (at their sin)…And they sacrificed there to the LORD” - they are both examples of the way the people of God can quickly forget and go off track. (v. 2:4,10) One moment the people are faithfully walking with the Lord, the next their kids don’t even know who he is. One day the people are repentant, weeping, and worshipping God, the next they are doing what is evil in the sigh of the Lord.

This shows us our need for outside intervention. This shows us our need for Jesus. As crucial and helpful as human intervention is, apart from the INDWELLING presence of God - we will always drift away! This is why we are given a NEW NATURE in Christ. This is why we are made a “new creation”. The alternative is what we read about in Judges. These people had God speaking to them. These people saw God’s miracles. These people had God’s favor - he loved them. These people would receive God-sent rescuers (called judges) that would save them in an earthly sense. But none of these were enough. They needed a different type of savior. WE need that savior. That savior is JESUS.

It is not beyond God to hand over those he loves into the hand of their enemies for the sake of refining them and bringing them to repentance. “So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.”

If we stop reading here, we may think that the Lord had abandoned his people… or stopped loving them. This is not the case. to read on is to see how God NEVER abandons - to be handed over to your enemies for refining is not to be abandoned! “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them…Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.” (v.16,18) So how do they respond?

This is the finally sobering truth from this passage concerning our sin and mission drift: ”whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.” (v.19) More often than not the cycle of sin, repentance, rescue, and return to sin results in DEEPER and more corrupted forms of it. Sin is never satisfied to stay at the same level… it is always going deeper… seeking new and more deviant ways to destroy us. Apart from Christ, there is no true hope. In Christ, there is great hope - but the pattern still remains. Our own cycles of sin will always be downward spirals… seeking to make us “more corrupt than our fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them.”

Have you been suffering from mission drift? Are you stuck in some sin patterns that you are hoping will remain the same and not get worse? Have you been seeking other human saviors… or saviors form around you when you actually need CHRIST? There is only so much that human leadership and intervention can accomplish. Maybe you are frustrated with someone you are trying to help. Take heart, Christ is working with you. Maybe you are desperate and have tried every other earthly manner of “treatment”? Only Christ can truly transform you from the inside out. Have you been handed over to your enemies? Call out to the Lord he is ready, willing, and able to send a judge… a redeemer… a rescuer! He does it every time his people call out to him. Love you guys. - JDP