What did Israel do that was so wicked in God’s eyes? “They forsook the Lord . . . and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.” Judges 2:17 describes this as committing adultery with other gods. Many other Bible passages also describe God’s people that way. The people often preferred to “trade in” the God of their salvation for other “saviors.”

Disloyalty, infidelity—“looking for love in all the wrong places”—brings harsh consequences: God turned Israel over to plunderers. God himself turned against them. God’s response makes sense. If you abandon God to seek the life of doing what is right in your own eyes, you can expect those eyes to lead you astray, with inescapable consequences.

Paul describes the consequences of lives driven by base passions: “they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice” (Romans 1:29). Strangely enough, this debased mind seduces God’s people again and again: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” (Proverbs 26:11).

The Israelites didn’t suffer because God had abandoned them; they suffered because God was looking after them. “The Lord disciplines those he loves” (Proverbs 3:12). It’s as if God was saying to later generations, “Be careful what your eyes wish for; you may get it.”

May the Spirit of Christ discipline our hearts to desire what is right in God’s eyes.