Great Battles of the Bible

Training for Battle and Testing Commitment

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

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.