Judges
chapter 3 provides great insight into how to live in spiritual peace.
It should serve as a great warning that any of us have the potential
to stumble if we do not remain diligent. The chapter begins, “These
are the nations the Lord left to test those Israelites who had not
experienced any of the wars in Canaan“.
These were the descendents of those Israelites that had taken
possession of the land. Every single one of us must engage in a
spiritual battle. There are no Christians from birth. You cannot
inherit salvation from mom or granddad. We read, “They
were left to test the Israelites to see if they would obey the Lord’s
commands, which He had given their forefathers“.
In general, parents today do not want their children to go through
the hardships that they themselves had to face. In protecting our
kids, we can also leave them unprepared to deal with the very real
choices they will face out in the real world. And listen to the
tragic result of the next generation being unprepared: “The
Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in
marriage and they gave their own daughters to their sons, and served
their gods“.
Quite simply, romantic love can turn our minds and hearts and blind
us to our own sin. Someone’s mom once said, “Be careful who you
date, because that is who you will marry”.
God
had specifically warned Moses and Joshua NOT to intermarry with the
idolaters in the land. He warned that they would turn to their false
gods. And here we read, “The
Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord their God and served the
Baals and Asherahs. The anger of the Lord burned and He sold them
into the hands of … the king of Aram“.
Very often spiritual rebellion leads to difficult life choices as
well. And notice, “The
Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to
the Lord, He raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz…
who saved them“.
So often people live in rebellion for years before they are finally
humble enough to cry out to God. God is always faithful to answer,
but the consequences of twenty years of our bad choices always remain
with us. The chapter continues, “The
Spirit of the Lord came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge
and went to war. The Lord gave … king of Aram into the hands of
Othniel,
who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until
Othniel died“.
No matter how long you have waited to cry out to God, spiritual
peace is available to you.
We
see the recurring pattern once again. Rebellion followed by
judgment, leading to repentance, then God faithfully restoring His
people. “Once
again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord… the Lord
gave Eglon King of Moab power over Israel… the Israelites were
subject to Eglon for eighteen years. Again, Israel cried out to the
Lord and He gave them a deliverer-Ehud, a left handed man“.
God uses those of us that are a little different, just to remind us
HE is the one in control. After killing the king, Ethud exhorts the
nation, “Follow
me… for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy into your hands… that
day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had peace for eighty
years“.
The chapter ends with a one-line mention of a “minor judge”
named Shamgar, who, “struck
down six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. He too saved Israel“.
There is very little information about this man, but we know an ox
goad is simply a long stick used to poke the ox that is pulling a
plow. Perhaps the lesson to us is, even in the peaceful times God
can use a simple person with a simple tool to accomplish great
victories. You are in a spiritual battle;
what tools are in your hands?