“Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness…”

A shoot from the stump of Jesse is described by Prophet Isaiah: This is a reminder of the good days of King David (son of Jesse), and a announcement of a coming greater and better King who will usher in a dispensation of righteousness, peace and joy – the Kingdom of God. The one described is a son of man, and this teaches me that we can emulate the attributes he would bear: “his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD”, and that is the call on us today if we are to dwell as citizens in the Kingdom of God.

In Judges 2:6-15 (read), this introduction of the book and an imminent epoch bring to mind what happened in the days past – ‘people served the Lord’. A summary of all that happened later begins with another generation that grew up; many phrases are repeated in the book about these later generations: they ‘did evil in the eyes of the Lord’, ‘provoked the Lord to anger’, and ‘the Lord handed them over’. The cyclic progression was evil, anger, defeat… This is the result of being unfaithful; giving up commitment to the God of our deliverance and His instructions. This painful progression was only interrupted by judges that arose by the Lord’s inspiration and checked Israel’s enemies for some seasons.

The same cyclic progressions is not alien to us today; at least it remains a natural progression and in a relationship with the Lord; evil, anger and defeat follow each other without effort in the arena of unfaithfulness. Our generations cannot claim to be without knowledge as those in verse Judges 2:10. We have both the Bible and accounts of what the Lord is and has done in our generations.

Again and again the Lord has affirmed his faithfulness to His promises. And, the fulfillment of the perfect shoot from the stump of Jesse has appeared – Jesus Christ. Our only response must be to reciprocate the faithfulness and righteousness as followers and children of God – not only to escape the progression of evil, anger and defeat, but more so to enjoy the benefits of living as children of God whom he has chosen by divine benevolent grace.

God bless you all.