Judges 3:1-6 – Working hand in hand with God

God left “…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” in the promised land to develop the skills of the Israelites who were untrained in war. In so doing, He was also using them to assess His people’s capacity to obey and walk uprightly with Him. Hence, the Israelites were made to live among “the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” What happened was sad. They began to syncretize with the Canaanites and those different tribes. They married their women and allowed their children to marry the daughters of those hostile Canaanites. They departed from their covenant promise and served their gods.    

Since they did to do their part to clear the land of Canaan of the enemy forces, they would have to fight many battles and solve many problems. The enemies relentlessly came against them. God permitted the enemies to pressurize them in order to train them. If they had actively done their part and stay focused on God, they would find God’s enablement to overcome and eradicate the hostile forces. But they didn’t. Yet God in His grace used the enemies to discipline and train His people, especially those who were not yet accustomed to warfare.  

In the Christian life, if we do our part and grow in discipleship, we find strength when we encounter difficulties and challenges in life. When we fail to progress in the Lord, we will feel overwhelmed by the tough circumstances of life. In walking closely with God, we will find His grace of God sufficient to see us through. Tough circumstances are there to help us redirect our focus in life. Every believer wants a life that is smooth and trouble free. And we know that the only way to ensure that is to live a life of obedience to God. When we remain faithful to God and His Word, there will be no necessity to subject us to discipline. When we fail to live according to His instruction, God will need to correct us. God will have to do whatever is needful to turn us back in the right way. We see this clearly in the life of the Israelites. The problem with them began when they failed to obey God’s instruction to drive out the Canaanites from the land allocated to them. While God promised to help them drive out the hostile forces, they on their part had to actively collaborate with God.

Meanwhile, we need to bear in mind that victory in our spiritual life is always a divine-human effort. It is always God working through us. Success is never gained through passivity. Just like footprints on the sand cannot be made by sitting in an armchair. That’s why the Bible tells us to work out our salvation while God works in us to fulfil His will in our life. Where the Israelites had clearly failed was their passivity. In Christian life, we must actively work with God to progress. Difficult encounters are there to train us and prove our obedience. If we stay focused even in those times, we will be perfected incrementally in our walk with God. We must actively work with God to deal with our propensity. Learn to keep our eyes riveted on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.