CRY OF FUTILITY (by Dennis R. Smith)

The history of God’s people in the Old Testament is a history of their disobedience.  You can see this in the repeated way they turned  their back upon God to serve the gods which had been made by man.  Such was the case in the time of the Judges.  The 10^th chapter of Judges is a summary of this fact.  “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth and the gods of Syria, etc.”  In the course of time seeing that worshiping these man-made gods brought nothing but misery, they “cried out unto the Lord” for help (Judges 10:10).   Listen to God’s reply: “Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation” (10:14).  Their plea at this time was a Cry of Futility.  While our God is a God of all grace and mercy, he also can reach a point of disgust with His people.  This can been seen in the New Testament as well. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom. 1:28).  When a nation lives and thrives on the material things and participates in all kinds of immoral acts,  they have placed themselves in a position of God’s turning his back on them. We call such action today “tough love.”  It may also be a lesson in futility.