1 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;
2 only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly).
3 These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
4 They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.
5 The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites;
6 and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Judges 3:1-6 (NASB)
Judges is a book I have always found interesting because of the back and forth relationship Israel has with the Lord. It seems as though the people never fully decided to follow the ways of God during this time in history. As you read it, you can see how the people are oppressed to the point where all they can do is cry out for God or suffer to the point of death. God, in His great mercy reaches out to them and raises up a leader (judge), who will deliver them from oppression and focus them on following God once again. Then, the leader dies and the people go right back to following their own ways or that of the leading influence of their day and context. God allows the people to go their own way and thus consequence sets in as a result.
God wanted to teach His people how to fight for what He has promised them rather than just handing it over to them and hoping they would steward or occupy this great blessing appropriately.
The above scripture stood out to me as I was pondering all that Israel was promised and had to go through prior to coming to this point in their history. It says that the Lord left some of the nations to "test" Israel as to whether or not they would obey God and what they knew He wanted them to do. God wanted to teach His people how to fight for what He has promised them rather than just handing it over to them and hoping they would steward or occupy this great blessing appropriately. The sad part of the story is that Israel did not fight (for the most part) for what God wanted to give them. They gave themselves over to the path of pleasure and deception - thinking that this life would somehow be better for them than the hard road of war.
He was (and is) developing me into someone who can fight through the difficulties to obtain His desired outcome.
There are times where I have prayed, "God, take me out of this situation" or "God, move this out of the way." or even, "God, please take this out of me right now." - with seemingly no answer. Looking back on those moments I now realize that God had a much bigger plan than just making everything easy for me. He was (and is) developing me into someone who can fight through the difficulties to obtain His desired outcome. Sometimes my only desired outcome is to get out of this situation quickly. But that would not help me to learn how to be like Jesus and to develop into a person who can trust God in all things and show my kids that this is the true way of life.
I can hear a call to fight in my heart - a call to fight for the real faith that Jesus died for, the true Gospel.
I see that we are living in a time where there are many things seeking to conquer our soul and reduce the people of Jesus to those who look like everyone else. No more love, kindness, power or anything else different from the rest of the world. This is something I am not willing to allow in my generation or the one following. I can hear a call to fight in my heart - a call to fight for the real faith that Jesus died for, the true Gospel. God has allowed things in our life (not taking them away), to teach us to call on Him and to see His promise realized. It is within us to choose not to give up. This may be our only part to play in our journey with God, to choose Him.
What God allows in our life is usable for our development, if we trust God and walk with Him to His promise for us.
When we are going through life and difficulties arise, I wonder if instead of asking God, "Why?", it would show more trust and devotion to His plan by asking, "What would You have me do Lord?"
In the middle of my difficulties I think, "I am not learning to ask the right question. The one that has Jesus as the center, not me." The right way to think is not always how do I feel about this, or I dont think this is right or fair. But rather, "God, how do you see this?", "Lord, what do You want me to do?"
I have not always lived a life with Jesus at the center, but as I fight through all that is in the way, I am seeing things with new eyes. God could have wiped every nation out of the promised land, but He chose to put that responsibility into the hands of those to whom it was promised. He would have caused them to win every war at every battle front, for He was with them. Their call was to trust that God was with them as they pursued what He has spoken to them about. Sadly, they did not do this. They could not trust the Lord and did not heed His way. What was meant to teach them war and become their stepping stones to victory became their oppressors. I am sure that spiritually this is the same for us. What God allows in our life is usable for our development, if we trust God and walk with Him to His promise for us.
Behold the King and fight the battle!
Ben Dixon, Ministry Director
www.igniteglobalministries.org
igniteglobalmin@gmail.org
