听到以色列民痛苦的呼求后，神总会兴起士师来带领和拯救他们脱离敌人的手的。藉着以笏、底波拉、基甸、和其他人，神每次都使国中太平四十年、有时甚至八十年（士师记 3:30; 5:31; 8:28）。可惜，每当这些拯救者死后，在顺境中的神的子民，很快便回到昔日那只会带给他们愁苦的生活方式了。惟有愚昧人才会重蹈覆辙行愚妄事、但又希望有不同的结局（箴言 26:11）。
我们或许以为，若有能干的领导人，就可以解决色列民沉迷于卑劣欲念的问题；然而，士师们一般来说都很称职，问题不是在神差拜来领导祂子民的牧者身上：那些羊儿才是问题所在。只要离开他们几分钟，他们便会各行己路、或吃了不应该吃的草而受苦的了。
神的子民，是那位恒久忍耐的牧者的羊儿；他们需要从自己的叛逆中被拯救出来，所以他们需要一个能永远除去敌人、又同时能改变羊儿不听话的陋习的领袖。后来，纵使伟大的君王大卫救了以色列民脱离非利士人的手，但是他和继承王位的后人，也无法把神的子民从“各人任意而行”的行为中拯救出来。
作为基督徒，我们知道我们时常会被引诱、一次又一次来到同一口愁苦的井取水喝；然而，我们心怀盼望，因为耶稣基督已经救了我们脱离死亡和脱离我们自己造成的愁苦了。
主啊，我是你的仆人。我沉迷在罪带来的愁苦中，求你藉着耶稣基督赦免我。阿们。
士师记 2:16-19; 箴言 26:5, 11-12
16耶和华兴起士师，士师就拯救他们脱离抢夺他们人的手。
17他们却不听从士师，竟随从叩拜别神，行了邪淫，速速地偏离他们列祖所行的道，不如他们列祖顺从耶和华的命令。
18耶和华为他们兴起士师，就与那士师同在，士师在世的一切日子，耶和华拯救他们脱离仇敌的手；他们因受欺压扰害，就哀声叹气，所以耶和华后悔了。
19及至士师死后，他们就转去行恶，比他们列祖更甚，去侍奉叩拜别神，总不断绝顽梗的恶行。
5要照愚昧人的愚妄话回答他，免得他自以为有智慧。
11愚昧人行愚妄事，行了又行，就如狗转过来吃他所吐的。
12你见自以为有智慧的人吗？愚昧人比他更有指望。
“They would not listen to their judges... ” - Judges 2:17
God heard Israel’s cries of distress and often raised up judges to lead and save the people from their enemies. Through Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, and others, God gave the land rest for forty and even eighty years at a time (3:30; 5:31; 8:28). But after each of those saviors died, God’s people eagerly cozied up to a way of life that had brought nothing but misery before. Only a fool does the same thing again and again and expects different results (Proverbs 26:11).
We might think Israel’s addiction to its base desires could have been solved by better leadership. But the judges generally served well. The shepherds God sent to lead his people were not the problem; the sheep were the problem. Leave them alone for a few minutes, and they go their own way or distress themselves with greenery they shouldn’t eat.
God’s people, the sheep of an eternally patient Shepherd, need to be saved from themselves. And that demands a leadership that can get rid of the enemy forever, while also changing the way of disobedient sheep. Later, even though the great King David saved Israel from the Philistines, he and his royal descendants could not rescue God’s people from doing “what was right in their own eyes.”
As Christians, we know we are tempted to drink from the same old wells of misery again and again. But we also have hope, for Jesus Christ has delivered us from death and our self-inflicted misery.
I am your servant, Lord. Forgive my addiction to sin’s misery, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳
