Great
Battles of the Bible:
Training for Battle and Testing Commitment
By Michael
K. Farrar, O.D.
© November
19, 2006
We all face
trials in life. But there is nothing we experience that is not filtered through
the hands of our Heavenly Father. God allows struggles to come into our life
for many reasons. He desires that we develop maturity. He desires that we trust
Him. He desires that we seek Him for strength. He desires we obey Him. One way
God assures these activities take place in our lives is when He allows us to
face hard times. He does this cautiously, lovingly and mercifully. He does not
enjoy seeing us suffer, but He knows that only through facing such difficulties
will we grow in Christ.
In Judges
chapter 3 we find an example of God using situations to train Israel for
battle, test their faithfulness and encourage their obedience. The first four
verses give us God’s intentions and reasons for such actions.
Judges
3:1-4
“These are the nations the LORD left to test all those
Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only
to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous
battle experience): the 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. They were left to test the Israelites to see whether
they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had given their forefathers
through Moses.”
The majority
of Israel’s men at this time were younger and without battle experience. God in
His wisdom knew that they needed to be trained in warfare. What better way to
learn battle tactics and skills than to fight against the nations that surround
you? God not only oversaw which nations came up against Israel, He very likely
orchestrated the manner in which the battles would take place. These battle
skirmishes would not put Israel in a situation where they could be totally
annihilated, but they would both train and test Israel’s obedience and trust in
God.
How similar
does this sound to the struggles that God allows to come our way. He knows we
need to mature and grow in our faith. What better way to strengthen our faith
than to be exposed to adversity and trial? Spiritual battles are usually the
situations that both train us up in the way we should live as well as test our
obedience to our Heavenly Father. Often we pray to God to remove adversity and
hardship because we feel we can grow strong in faith without it. This is usually very far from the truth. We
often take God for granted until we are tested. We often fail to seek God until
we fall into a time of trial. Yes we do grow spiritually without adversity, but
trials drive us quickly to the Lord. We dust off our Bibles. We fall to our
knees in prayer. We seek support from our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We
purge our lives of sin. We focus on Christ and how He might deliver us. It’s
unfortunate but true that we need to be trained often in righteousness through
the refiner’s fire of hardship.
Sometimes
trials can also drive us away from God. We blame God for putting us in such a
situation. We blame Him for our suffering and fail to see His providence and
availability for deliverance. When we play the blame game, we are not
responding to the testing in an appropriate manner and rebel through our
behavior. This is what Israel often did. They abandoned God and sought the
comfort of sin and disobedience instead. In Judges 3: 6-8 we see what
rebellious behavior can take place when God’s people respond to trials in an
inappropriate manner.
“They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own
daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The Israelites did evil in the
eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the
Asherahs. The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into
the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites
were subject for eight years.”
God is
amazing in His grace. He places trials in our path to train and test us. If we
respond appropriately we grow in faith and in our relationship with Him. If we
rebel, He disciplines us like any loving Father would, but is ever ready to
forgive us if we but ask for forgiveness. This is what happened to Israel. God
disciplined Israel by placing them in captivity under an evil king. Their
captivity drove them to God and they repented of their sins. God then provided
a deliverer for them in the person of Othniel, son of Kenaz. We read in Judges
3:10-11 how God used this man.
“The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became
Israel's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram
into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty
years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.”
What happens
next in Judges 3 reminds me so much of myself as I look over my past Christian
life. Has this happened to you as well?
We read in
Judges 3:12-14,
“Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,
and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over
Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and
attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites
were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.”
Just like Israel, how
often do we fail to learn from the lessons God gives us through trials? We seem
to wander soon after God delivers us from the struggles we have. It’s amazing
how patience our loving Lord is at times. If we were God we would have burned
the earth to a cinder long ago for the inconsistent behavior and rebellion that
mankind demonstrates towards our Creator.
In the above verses we see how Israel failed to learn from their
process of rebellion, discipline and repentance. Again, the Lord is put in a
position of having to discipline them again. Again Israel cries out to their
Lord for mercy and to deliver them from their predicament.
“Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave
them a deliverer — Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite.”
Here we see
God once again grants mercy to His children by raising up a man in their midst
to deliver them from there captivity. God used Ehud to deliver Israel from
Eglon king of Moab.
God often works through common men
and women who put their faith in their Heavenly Father. In this case Ehud not
only killed the king of Moab, he led Israel into battle as well always giving
credit for victory to the Lord. Later in Judges we read, “‘Follow me,’ he
ordered, ‘for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.’ So they
followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to
Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about
ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. That day
Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.
After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six
hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.”
Here we see that God works through
those who put their trust in Him, who obey Him and love Him with all their
heart, mind and soul despite the trials that are put upon them. We see that God
tests His servants at times to cause them to grow in their faith. Sometimes
these tests are difficult, but through them the true character and commitment
of the person rises to the surface.
They say that Christians are like
tea bags, you find out what they are really made of when they are put in hot
water. There is a lot of truth in that silly statement. Are you currently in a
hot water situation in life? Is God testing you? How are you responding? Are
you remaining faithful and trusting that God will pull you through? Are you
rebelling against God? Are you in a situation of rebellion and you need to return
to fellowship? Have you humbled yourself before Him and cried out to Him for
mercy and deliverance? I hope that you and I will be quick to trust the Lord,
obey Him through trials and trust in His process of growing us in Christ.