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.
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