Judges 3:1-6 (ESV)
1 Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. 2 It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. 3 These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.
God Leaves Temptation to Test Us!
We might wonder why God simply just doesn’t move temptation and sin completely away from His children. The above passage gives us insight as to why not. God allows sin to be in our lives because it provides fire to refine our love for Him. That is what is happening in the above passage. Throughout the book of Judges, the story line is the nation of Israel conquering the land God had promises to “give” them. Yet, He wanted to show His power through them and His love for them, but allowing them to seize the land. As they conquered more land, in faith, God would provide more land for them to conquer. God provides for us as our faith leads us. Notice what Paul told the Corinthian believers about our war, that is not of the flesh, but of the spirit:
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV)
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Notice verse six. God is ready to punish every disobedience, when our obedience is complete. The principle taught here is that God gives us strength via faith to fight sin in our lives. As He does and as we do, He allows more temptation into our lives that we can defeat and He is ready to punish other sin as we gain ground in victory over the sin right before us. This is a marvelous truth and it is demonstrated in what God allowed in the lives of the nation of Israel as they fought to gain the land God had promised. Faithful obedience in one area provides strength and victory in areas we didn’t even know needed to be fought, but God is still fighting for us.
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