{"id":27291,"date":"2023-07-23T22:00:17","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/judges-2_11-23-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-07-11T14:02:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T21:02:31","slug":"judges-3_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/judges-3_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"God Is Training You For Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judges 3:1-11\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Judges 3:1-11.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Judges 3:1-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0These are the nations the\u00a0LORD\u00a0left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0the 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.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the\u00a0LORD’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-4: \u00a0Though the Israelites broke God\u2019s original command to drive out the idol worshiping nations from Canaan, God in His sovereignty still found a way to accomplish a good purpose through the Israelites\u2019 failure to obey.\u00a0 These verses tell us that God used this situation to (1) teach the younger Israelites who did not have previous battle experience how to fight (v2); and (2) see if this younger generation would obey the LORD\u2019s commands (v4).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0In His sovereignty, God takes situations that He did not intend or desire and finds a way to use them for a greater purpose.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0God wants His people to know how to fight.\u00a0 That is still the case today, except for us the battles we fight are primarily spiritual and the enemy we fight is a real but invisible one (see Ephesians 6:12).\u00a0\u00a0When faced with spiritual opposition, God does not want us to be like a deer in the headlights, defenseless and having no idea what to do.<\/strong>\u00a0 Like Psalm 144:1 says, He is a God \u201cwho trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judges 3:5-11 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD; they forgot the\u00a0LORD\u00a0their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The anger of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0burned 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.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But when they cried out to the\u00a0LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Spirit of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0came upon him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The\u00a0LORD\u00a0gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-11:\u00a0 Judges 2:11-19 laid out a formula, a cycle, that the Israelites would follow, which goes like this:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0Forsake God
\n–\u00a0\u00a0Experience attack, defeat, and abuse by enemies
\n–\u00a0\u00a0Cry out to God for help
\n–\u00a0\u00a0God sends a deliverer to rescue
\n–\u00a0\u00a0Deliverer dies
\n–\u00a0\u00a0Go back to forsaking God<\/p>\n

The first instance of this cycle is described here in verses 5-11.\u00a0 The Israelites intermarry with the other nations living in Canaan, forsake God and serve the gods of other nations.\u00a0 God is displeased and removes His protecting presence from the Israelites.\u00a0 The Israelites experience attack, defeat and abuse at the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram for 8 years.\u00a0 So the Israelites cry out to God for help.\u00a0 God sends them Othniel, a nephew of Caleb, to save them.\u00a0 The Israelites then experience peace for 40 years until Othniel dies.\u00a0 As verse 12 will tell us, the Israelites will then go back to forsaking God all over again and the cycle repeats itself.<\/p>\n

In this case, what triggered the Israelites\u2019 abandonment of their faith in the LORD?\u00a0 According to the author of Judges, it was their decision to intermarry with individuals who did not worship the LORD but worshiped other gods, which in turn led the Israelites to worship other gods (v5-7).\u00a0 It goes to show that whom you decide to partner with in life is absolutely crucial.\u00a0\u00a0God wants you to partner with people who you are aligned with you in terms of values and faith so that you can strengthen one another to follow and serve the LORD together.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0God knows that when you intertwine your life inextricably with someone who is not aligned with you in faith and values, you will be stuck in a burdensome struggle where you\u2019re constantly fighting an internal spiritual battle and can risk losing your faith entirely.<\/p>\n

That is why 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 (NIV)\u00a0says:
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”<\/em><\/p>\n

May you be careful and wise about whom you decide to partner with in life.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You for being the God who trains me for battle.\u00a0 I know that training is not supposed to be pleasant.\u00a0 Thank You for using hardships and difficulties in our lives to train us to be the warriors and soldiers You made us to be for Your glory.\u00a0 Please give me wisdom to partner with the right people.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Judges 3:1-11.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Judges 3:1-4 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0These are the nations the\u00a0LORD\u00a0left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan
\n2\u00a0\u00a0(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):
\n3\u00a0\u00a0the 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.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the\u00a0LORD’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-4: \u00a0Though the Israelites broke God\u2019s original command to drive out the idol worshiping nations from Canaan, God in His sovereignty still found a way to accomplish a good purpose through the Israelites\u2019 failure to obey.\u00a0 These verses tell us that God used this situation to (1) teach the younger Israelites who did not have previous battle experience how to fight (v2); and (2) see if this younger generation would obey the LORD\u2019s commands (v4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27294,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27291\/revisions\/27294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}