For forty years I led you through the desert … yet your sandals did not wear out." Duet. 29:5
“Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites”.
Sure. This is a different time and place. A different culture. A different dispensation, too. After all, there were three miracles performed for Gideon to convince him that the Lord of Hosts would indeed go before him and give him the victory.
But the principle is the same. Just all of you given to all of Him will make your life all God ever planned it to be.
“March on with courage, my soul.”
Not because you are stronger than your foes, O my soul. Not because you are a dreadful warrior. Not because you are more familiar with the battlefield terrain than they are. But the One who gives the command to march — He is all of those things.
“Very well”, she replied. “I will go with you, but you will receive no honor in this venture. For the LORD’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.”
The overall plan and purpose of God is predetermined, but our part in that plan, and the particular way in which His purpose is accomplished in each of our lives depends more than a little on the decisions we make and the prayers we offer.
“But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord raised up a rescuer to save them.”
Over and over again, the Lord demonstrated his faithfulness to his covenant (yet wayward) people. He would raise up a warrior-judge to deliver Israel from her enemies and to bring peace to the nation. But a generation would pass —sometimes less— and then the people would turn from the Lord and his ways and the cycle would repeat itself.
Sin is destructive Sin is stupid.
“They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth.”
They turned away from the invisible God of their fathers to strange gods they could see , even though they were no gods at all.
“But they failed to drive out the people living in the plains, who had iron chariots.”
Considering the many towns and surrounding villages that were conquered, the mention of this failure might at first seem relatively insignificant. Yet it would prove to be a chronic problem for Israel, not just in the military sense, but even more in the pagan influence on the culture.
“The people of Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua.”
This verse is very positive when read by itself, out of context. Overall, the people of Israel were very inconsistent in serving the Lord. Moses struggled to get a complaining, wayward people through the wilderness. Their faithlessness grieved the Lord so much that of the hundreds of thousands who crossed the Red Sea who were twenty years of age or older, only two—Joshua and Caleb—lived to actually enter the promised land. The Lord had determined the rest would die in the wilderness. Now Joshua and Caleb were gone. A new generation was in the promised land, but would they prove more faithful to the Lord than their parents had been?
“So be very careful to love the Lord your God.”
Take care, take time to love the Lord—to demonstrate your love for Him by the things you do and the words you say.
“The Lord, the Mighty One is God! The Lord, the Mighty One is God!”
Thus exclaimed the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh when they were confronted by the other tribes in the land of Gilead. But after hearing their explanation, the ten tribes were satisfied.
The exclamation was honest, simple and to the point. It is how we are supposed to live every day.
“And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had solemnly promised their ancestors.”
The Lord is very solemn about his promises, for He intends to keep them, no matter the cost.
