Broken

Judges 1: The book of Judges chronicles the brokenness of God's world. God's perfect world, created only a few centuries earlier, has come to such despicable degradation and filth. Here are some examples, just in one chapter of how the world was broken:
• Doubting God after Joshua's death
• Cutting off Adoni-Bezek's thumbs and toes and having him eat under the table
• Caleb giving his daughter as a prize for war
• The daughter pressuring and manipulating her new husband into getting land
• The tribes of Israel failed to drive out and kills the people that they conquered according to God's command
• Dwelling among the pagan tribes

In the midst of all of this sin we see the words "and the Lord was with Judah." Judah and Simeon actually followed God's commands. But verse 22 says "and the Lord was with them", referring to the tribe of Benjamin. So, even though the Benjamites sinned by not driving out the Canaanites, God was still with them. Throughout the rest of the book, and the rest of human history that God is still with these sinful people. It's true though, they messed up their lives. I wonder how the current political situation would look today had they followed God's command to exterminate the Canaanites. I wonder if the Diaspora and the pogroms and the Holocaust and Muslim terrorism would have happened. From Judges on Israel will face centuries of conflict because they refused to drive out these pagans. But even this, we know, is part of God's good plan. As Dr. Mills always said, it is part of the story. A story that will ultimately give the most glory to God. And to paraphrase John Piper - sin is part of God's plan. He does not condone it, but it can have a part in His work in the world. Working in an through the sin of mankind God shows just how good He really is.