The Redemption Cycle

The last two posts describe the tension that plays out in the book of Judges. God has asked His people to partner with Him in putting the world back together. He has placed them in the crossroads of the earth (the shephelah of the earth?) in order to show the world that their God is different — their God is not angry, but loving. But in order for this mission to be realized, they are going to have to live in the shephelah, and living in the shephelah is dangerous.

This is a tension that God doesn’t seek to resolve. Not in the book of Judges and not in life. This is the partnership that God invites us into. The book of Judges is simply one place where we see this story play out. Sometimes we see people (like the tribe of Dan) run from the dangers, vowing a life of devotion in the mountains; however, this devoted life is also void of the mission of God. Other times we see the people of Israel in the book of Judges falling into the temptation of being swallowed up by the broken world they are seeking to redeem; we see this in the ruins of Beth Shemesh and numerous stories where the people take on the gods of the nations that surround them.

We even see this in the story of Samson. Samson is a man set apart for God from birth. Destined to be a Nazarite (see Numbers 6), Samson’s role in the community (the tribe of Dan, actually) is to remind the people that they are to be different than the nations that surround them in the shephelah. Samson is a walking billboard that advertises God’s mission to his brothers. However, the tragedy of Samson is two-fold. First, while Samson is a Nazarite (albeit not a very good one), he misses the calling on his life by being so influenced by the Philistines. Constantly tempted by lure of Philistine women, Samson will lose the potency of his calling. Second, Samson does all of this alone. You cannot impact the shephelah alone. The Jews have often pointed out that Samson has no community. He is in Philistia alone. He travels alone. He fights the Philistines alone. He is in the cave alone. This is a recipe for shephelah disaster.

God will eventually use the life (more accurately, the death) of Samson to rescue His people, but I would argue it was not the way it was designed to work. The idea is that the tribe of Dan would be positioned in the shephelah, led by a dynamic leader (Samson), called to impact the world of the Philistines and show them a better way — a better God. But they lose the gravity of their message by becoming lost in the culture of the ones they are seeking to influence.

And whether they are running away from their call or getting lost in the culture, we keep seeing the Israelites struggle throughout the book of Judges.

Scholars and Bible teachers have for ages described the book of Judges using the phrase “Sin Cycle.” The idea is that all throughout the book of Judges, we keep seeing the people go through the same cycle: things are going great, they start to rebel, they become oppressed, they cry out, God raises up a leader, God rescues the people — and the cycle starts all over again (see below).

I have always taught my students that this cycle (more or less) is completely accurate and obvious in the story of the Judges. However, the fact that we refer to it as the “Sin Cycle” betrays our initial assumptions about the truths that lie at the heart of the story. It presumes that the story is about the depravity and brokenness of humanity. But we have, since the beginning of this journey, insisted that the story is about God’s good creation, His insistence that we are accepted and loved, and an invitation to trust the story that God is telling and live in true “rest.”

But the “Sin Cycle”?  It would seem to me that we aren’t listening to God’s story.

Time and time again, we have encountered a God who insists that our sin doesn’t keep Him from loving and accepting us. Despite our failures, we are not defined by our deficiencies. We are defined by our identity as God’s creation, made in His image, created with incredible potential. No matter our past, we are invited in each moment to partner with God in His great Kingdom work.

So, is it about a “Sin Cycle”?
Or is it about a “Redemption Cycle”?

Is it about my brokenness or God’s goodness?
Do I read Judges and find myself amazed at the foolishness of God?
Or do I stand in awe at His unbelievable patience and faithfulness?

I continue to assert that God is inviting us to trust a good story. As I said before, I believe God has endless, bottomless patience for the person who is trying to walk the path of life well. We will encounter God’s wrath when we start to see people crush the marginalized and downtrodden.

But God has better things to do than let your sin get in the way of what He has in store for you. And the book of Judges proves it.

And I’m glad.

Because I’ve found that the story of the Israelites is my story. I find that as I examine that diagram of the “Sin Cycle,” I see a pretty good representation of what my life looks like. There are days when I feel like the worst chapter of the book of Judges could be a journal entry about my day.

But thankfully, the cycle keeps coming around.

And you’re right, Mr. Bible Teacher — it is about my sin.

But apparently, it’s not.

Because the wheel in the sky keeps on turning (to quote Journey) and God’s rescue keeps coming around.

So at the end of the day, what amazes me is not my stupidity, but God’s bigger, better reality. His amazing grace. His profound patience.

I’m going to call it the “Redemption Cycle.” It’s a truer true.