Call! Don't Fall!

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Judges 1-2)

“Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals;” Judges 2:8-11

The ominous sign at the foot of my bed had two exclamation points! “Call! Don’t Fall!” Two choices it screamed! “Call and ask for assistance or do yourself some serious damage by being independent!”

After my knee replacement, I spent eighteen days at Peabody Manor. I opted to do this because my doctor explained that physical therapy twice a day would produce better results in the long run. “Besides,” he said, “They know what they’re doing.”

I obviously didn’t since I’d never had anything replaced before. Charlie said that since he hadn’t either, it could be tough on our marriage if I stayed home and let him supervise the rehab exercises. So I was okay about being there for a while. After all, it was a safe place with competent people and our marriage was being preserved.

But this sign at the end of my bed: “Call! Don’t Fall!”

“I am an independent American and I can get up and take care of myself, thank you. Do I really need to call a nurse and wait for her to appear to do the basics of life?”

However, it wasn’t many hours before my knee pain and lack of balance made me wonder if the doctor had also performed a brain replacement. I couldn’t remember how to walk. It was like I was starting from scratch. I did most certainly need those helpful people in my unsteady state. Calling and not falling seemed like a very good choice. I began to be thankful that the sign was there with its two contrasts.

Speaking of contrasts, the book of Joshua and the book of Judges are like comparing a day filled with sunshine and a day covered over with clouds. Joshua is bright with stories of Israel’s obedience and success. Judges is twenty-one dark chapters of the young nation’s disobedience and failures.

Joshua had led Israel to conquer the Promised Land in general, but each tribe was to remove the Canaanite strongholds that remained in their individual inheritances. They didn’t do it. After Joshua died, the Israelites experienced some short-lived military successes under Judah and Simeon. But, as soon as they ran into the inhabitants of the lowland with their chariots of iron, their faith faltered. Instead of calling on God, they retreated in fear. Instead of removing the moral cancer spread by the inhabitants of Canaan, they let them remain.

Compromise always leads to conflict and chaos. The Israelites didn’t remove the cancer and they contracted the disease. Soon they were worshiping Baal and other Canaanite gods. By now, they should have learned the lesson: "Call! Don't Fall!” Call out to God because He is with you. He is there to deliver you Israel. Just obey!

Chapter two of Judges is a synopsis of the whole book of Judges. It is like reading the back cover of a novel. It tells us exactly what happens in the Book of Failures. When the Israelites don’t call, they fall. When they do call on God, He raises up a deliverer – a spiritual and political deliverer. These individual judges portray the role of Jesus as the Savior-King of His people.

Today we have Jesus living in us as our Savior and King. He is there for us. Why don’t we call on Him when we run up against the chariots of iron in our lives? So often, just like the Israelites, we compromise and coexist with strongholds that need to be dealt with. Then, we’re shocked at the amount of pull they exert on our lives.

My friend, Ann, came to visit me at Peabody Manor. She looked at the sign and said, “That’s a great spiritual message! Call! Don’t Fall!” She got it right away. No brain replacement needed there.

We can call and ask for assistance from our very competent Father in heaven or we can do ourselves some serious damage by being independent. These are two contrasting choices that we make so many times in every day. Just like at Peabody Manor.