Taught to Know War

During family devotions a few nights ago we read a passage which has remained in my mind and on my heart.  Judges 3:1-4 reads, "Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan ² (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), ³ namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. ⁴ And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses."

The children of Israel were not obedient to drive out the nations in the land of promise.  Therefore God told them He would no longer drive them out, and it was not out of spite or frustration.  God had righteous motives in allowing the enemy nations to remain, and these verses reveal some of God's redemptive purposes.  Verses one and four say God left the nations to "test Israel by them," so it would be evident if His people obeyed His commands or not.  If you read on for a few more verses, you will see they did not.

The part of this passage which has me thinking is verse two.  After the initial war to secure the land, a generation in Israel arose who did not know war.  Another purpose of God for allowing opposing forces in Canaan was "only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war..."  I don't know about you, but I would be glad for my children to never know war as many have known it.  My grandfather, Bernard Francis Grisez, was a Pearl Harbour survivor.  He was a great man.  Despite the struggles of service, I know his experiences had a formative quality in his personality and character for good.  God is wiser than men, and He knows how to make them.

God desired the new generation be taught to know war, to learn to trust God to fight their battles.  He didn't want the children of Israel to be soft, complacent, and be ignorant of enemy threats.  He wanted to develop men into warriors who could teach others to trust God and fight.  He didn't want His people touting their strength at fitness boot camp when they hadn't even been through military basic training!  What good are toned abs if you can't handle a sword, spear, or bow?  There is a big difference between basic training and live combat.  There is something about risking your life that is an impetus to growing faith in God.  Every day God provides tests to prove us to see if we will obey Him or not.

How true this is for us!  The scriptures tell us we are in a spiritual battle for the souls of men and the glory of God.  Remember the words of 2 Timothy 2:1-4:  "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ² And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. ³ You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. ⁴ No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier."  We are called to be strong in the grace of Christ, lead others to Him faithfully, teach them to observe His commands, and endure hardship as a good soldier.  God is our Commander, and we are His subjects.  He allows opposition and battles within and outside so we too might learn how to battle, fight on in faith despite hardship, and learn how to walk victoriously.  We can endure to the end, even as Jesus did.  He endured the cross, knowing the glory and victory of the resurrection was only possible through the cross.  Let us follow His example and fight on for the joy set before us!

Leave Your Waterpot

John 4 tells of a woman in the city of Samaria who went to a well to draw water.  To her amazement, she met a Jewish man at the well who not only acknowledged her presence, but asked for a drink!  This was quite out of the ordinary.  To put her perspective in her own words, "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."  She realised quickly that Jesus was no ordinary man.  He was not even an ordinary prophet.  He said in John 4:13-14, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  As Jesus told her of Living Water only He could provide through the Holy Spirit and eternal life, her heart leaped with the incredible possibility:  was this the promised Messiah?

She went to the well with a plan to draw water, but in her excitement over meeting and speaking with Jesus her plans changed.  John 4:28-29 says, "The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ²⁹ "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"  The woman went for some water, but received living water through faith in Jesus.  Her plans immediately changed.  This is significant, that she left her waterpot behind!

I have no idea how many times, dear Christian, I have lugged that heavy, sloshing waterpot of my own plans along when God had a greater and higher purpose for me.  I went to the petrol station to purchase fuel for my car and I left with a full tank - but didn't take the time to start a conversation with the intent to introduce someone to Jesus.  It was me who remained empty when I could have been filled with the Spirit.  I stayed up late watching a program on TV to the end, but fell asleep mid-sentence whilst in prayer.  I was occupied, but not satisfied.  We make many plans for ourselves, but do we allow God to interrupt them with something beautiful and awe inspiring through the leading of the Spirit?  We need to learn to leave our waterpots when God has given us something far more satisfying through His service.  Jesus had food to eat His disciples did not know, and Jesus provides life, strength, and purpose the world cannot know!

Answering the Call God's Way

Today is my first day back in OZ after a relaxing holiday in New Zealand.  It was a wonderful blessing and I was thankful for the opportunity to see the sights and spend time with family.  Life had become very busy and so many things were vying for attention, like pesky flies swarming persistently at your face.  In addition to seeing beautiful countryside and enjoying family time it was a good opportunity to step back and evaluate the way I spend time.  With God's help, I shall jump back into the fray circumspectly and seeking His leading in my life.

A fitting passage was one our family read last night.  It is one thing to know you are called by God and even what you are supposed to do.  But it matters little to have knowledge of what you are to do should you neglect to seek God in how to do it.  Judges 1:1-3 is a great illustration of this, something more common than we might think.  The children of Israel did not always inquire of the LORD before doing what was right in their own eyes.  To their credit, in this opening passage of Judges they did seek God.  Though they started well, they veered from God's course.  Judges 1:1-3 reads, "Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, "Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?" ² And the LORD said, "Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand." ³ So Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory." And Simeon went with him."

God called the men of Judah to go up and fight against the Canaanites.  Although God had promised to deliver the Canaanites into the hand of the tribe of Judah, for some reason they decided to ask the tribe of Simeon to help out with a promise of reciprocation:  you help us, and we will help you!  The tribe of Judah heard the call, but decided reinforcements were a good idea.  The lure of convenience and strength in numbers was too strong a temptation for Judah rather than trusting God to fight their battles.  Simeon's country was surrounded by territory given by God to the tribe of Judah.  Thus Simeon was lured into fighting a battle that was not theirs, and Judah did not obtain the deliverance promised by God because they decided to take matters into their own hands and do things their own way.

Understand that God remained faithful to the children of Judah and helped them to defeat their enemies.  Even though Simeon lent assistance they prevailed over their enemies - but not completely.  Some of the land they did secure were later strongholds for Philistines and other enemies of Israel.  Judges 1:17-19 says, "And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. ¹⁸ Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. ¹⁹ So the LORD was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron."  God's hand was not shortened that it could not save.  He overthrew the Egyptians and their chariots in the midst of the Red Sea, yet Judah was not able to drive out the inhabitants of the lowland.  Were those iron chariots stronger than God?  No.  But Judah did not wholly trust God, substituting the combined strength of Simeon for deliverance only from God.

What a good reminder this was, to not only answer God's call but to do so with God's guidance every step along the way.  Nothing about the call of Christ is convenient.  It is all faith, obedience, and sacrifice.  We need God to perform miracle after miracle to deliver us and establish us in Him.  The lame man at the pool at Bethesda was looking for the moving of the water, lamenting the lack of a man to help him quickly dip into the water when Jesus - the One who gives Living Water - spoke with Him face to face.  Can we be so blind?  Batting away the flies distracts us and is exhausting, yet God is able to drop them in an instant.  Only in Him will we find rest.  Let us respond to God's call God's way.  It is He who will triumph over all enemies!

Hold Fast To the End

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said it was not a tedious task to remind and exhort them to rejoice in the LORD.  If it was not tedious or irksome (Phil. 3:1) for him to write as led by the Holy Spirit, it should certainly not be tedious to read and study the same Word so we too might hear God speak.  Because I believe the Bible is proven to be literal God-breathed truth, it is rich and exciting in itself.  I wonder when people are driven to conjecture to somehow make the Bible more interesting, as if it was a dull and boring book devoid of power.  The Bible alone contains the words of life, and there is nothing dull about that!

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 with commands, warnings, and exhortations.  He wrote in 2 Timothy 4:1-5, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ⁵ But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."  A day will come when Jesus will judge the living and the dead.  Paul charged Timothy to remain faithful to preach the Word of God - not opinions, conjecture, or stories.  A time would come (and now is) when even professing Christians will refuse biblical truth and be led astray from Christ according to the desires of their deceived hearts.  Regardless of their protests or opposition from the world and the prince of it, Timothy was to keep to the truth of the Bible.  This is a good exhortation for all Christians alike.

I found useful an article titled "A Heart That Burns" by Chuck Smith in the April 2014 edition of Decision magazine.  By God's grace, I know something of what Chuck speaks when he writes:

I get so excited just reading the Word of God.  There are times when I can hardly contain myself, as God's Spirit begins to open up the Scriptures to me.  I can't describe to you just how exciting it is to be taught by the Spirit the truth of God's Word and suddenly have understanding given to you, the Scriptures opened up to you.  There are some people who get excited when people speak in tongues or when people utter prophecies.  I get excited over the Word of God.  Some people get excited over visions or dreams.  I get excited over the Word of God.  "He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45).  That's a glorious gift, when God opens your understanding that you might understand.  And that happens when you're born again. (Smith, pg. 40)

As we progress in our Christian walk, we never lose our need for the fundamental truths of God's Word.  It seems many people in the church seek after experiences and emotional stirring rather than seeking Christ.  They become dissatisfied with their walk with Christ because they have stopped looking to Him to be their all in all.  He was never their God, so a worthless idol easily fills His rightful place.  They are caught up in flavour rather than substance.  When the foundation of Christ and obedience to His Word is abandoned for the slippery sand of personal experience or sinful desire, destruction is the result.  God is not a means but the End.  Jesus said He is the Alpha and the Omega, and His judgments are the only ones that count.  Let us hold fast to sound doctrine as we love one another as Jesus loves us.