Judges 1:1-10 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying… "The fox finds himself at last at the furrier's," and his fate is all the more certain because of the foxy conduct in which he has been engaged. They say "A bad deed never dies"; and they might further say that its life is quickened and its sting intensified by the cumulative influence of time. "He can't reap wheat that sows hemlock"; the harvest must be to the full as poisonous as the seed. As we brew, we must drink; so we cannot be too prudent as to the purity of the materials or too careful of the mixing. "Do well, and have well; do ill, and look for the like." "Remember the reckoning" is a pregnant old saw that might well be suspended in home and office, hearthstone and wayside; it would often save men a tremendous balance on the contra side of the ledgers both of money and morals. Sin and punishment are like the body and the shadow, never very far apart. Who sin for their profit will not profit by their sin; you may see nothing but well in its commission, you will see nothing but woe in its conclusion. The law of retribution is as fixed as the law of gravitation. There is a connecting string between ourselves and our misdeeds. We tie ourselves by an invisible and enduring thread to every evil deed we do. There is an Australian missile called the boomerang, which is thrown so as to describe singular curves, and falls again at the feet of the thrower. Sin is that boomerang, which goes off into space, but turns again upon its author, and, with tenfold force, strikes him who launched it. (J. Jackson Wray.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? |
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