July 13, 2021
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Reading along with us in Judges? Here’s today’s reading:
Judges 3 (NIV)
1 These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath......Continue Reading
God again allows the sin of their disobedience and it’s result to remain. It says that He did this to prove their faithfulness to the Lord as I am sure He does with us as well. They fall victim to their own disobedience until they finally cry out and God always answers, God provides a way out for them to once again slip back into their disobedience.
Of course I would be remiss to not mention the painfully descriptive assassination that occurs here! When God’s wrath comes…it sure comes!
Judges 1-3
The extent of the faithfulness of our God is just amazing. The mere fact that He would raise up judges for a disobedient people gives us hope even in our day. If only we could keep our eyes on God.
Bring eft handed was considered a handicap in those days. But God used this weakness to deliver Israel. Love it when God uses our weakness to acquire a victory. Being left handed in Catholic school in the 60’s was certainly looked down upon. I remember being in classroom and a priest came in to ask who was willing to serve as an alter boy I stood up. But was told to sit down. Being left handed kept me from being an alter boy where James porter was the resident priest. Thank you Jesus!!!!
Judges 3 – how many times do they turn their backs on God and fall to sin and he punishes them until they cry out for him and he hears them and picks them up again only for them to do it again, and God shows his wrath until they finally realize they need him and they cry out again and the Lord helps them out.
So the up and down, back and forth accounts begin in the book of Judges. Good to see Caleb’s grandnephew was faithful and could be called on by the Lord. It is always significant to have someone in the Old Testament filled with the Holy Spirit. How important His power is to make us who we need to be for the tasks at hand. It is incredible to read that they had 40 years of peace as long as Othniel was alive. But once he died, back to evil the Israelites went, Leaders are certainly accountable to lead well, but the people are also accountable to follow through on what they are directed in and establish something on their own with God so they can continue to be faithful even when the leaders influence is gone. It is clear this did not happen.
Ehud is next with an interesting story of killing this king and having his sword penetrate through and being concealed in all the fat, which allows for Ehud’s escape. Oh the funny things the Bible shares about the servants not wanting to disturb the king going to the bathroom. Sometimes all it takes is one person, empowered by God to lead the charge and say “come follow me”. And the land had peace for 80 years. There should have been a lot of momentum for faithfulness established in that time. How easy is it for us to have all that slip away and slip into bad habits of disobedience?
I got to thinking about the pattern of how a leader is raised up, Israel turns to God, the leader dies, Israel falls away.
I am so thankful that I have a leader (Jesus Christ) who will never die!
4They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.
5The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
“(this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it)”
It is sad to say that I think that when a nation has not experienced war, the children become entitled and complacent. I think we are seeing this in spades! Respect for fathers, family, country, the flag has been lost. I think even 9/11 briefly drove our nation to prayer and recognition for our “heroes” (first responders in NYC), it is sad that peace without doesn’t necessarily foster peace within. Instead, it draws us to self-reliance and pride….away from God.