Israel had sinned once again and they were feeling the consequence of it. Gentile armies had come in and plundered some of the tribes, Israel felt unprotected, they felt that what they were saved for was being destroyed.
'You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.'
'You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.'
(v 8-11) ESV
Israel had forgotten her purpose, she was to be a light to the Gentiles, a shade to the nations and yet Israel had forgotten.
Our purpose can sometimes allude us. At times I've found myself in a wilderness, feeling dry, having lost site of what I'm called to do, forgetting that this life is not my own but that I'm here to love the lost, to serve God's people, to fight as a soldier alongside friends, for the advance of God's Kingdom.
Sometimes God takes us on a journey of remembering what we're called to, sometimes it's painful, it feels like being broken, being stripped of all confidence in ourselves, but he wants to restore us to purpose, to take us out of the wilderness we somehow got ourselves in to, a place of ineffectiveness, a place where we are exposed and in danger. He wants us to get to a place where we are calling out, just like Asaph:
'Restore us, Lord Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.'
Father, let your name be lifted high in my life, let me not lose sight of your plan. Make me effective in your Kingdom, even if it means things need to be broken regularly in my life, I want to finish well.
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