Judges : The constant training

Judges 2 21I from now on will also not drive out from before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died.22That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.23So the Lord left those nations, without driving them out at once, nor had He delivered them into Joshua's power.

Judges 3 1NOW THESE are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not previously experienced war in Canaan; 2It was only that the generations of the Israelites might know and be taught war, at least those who previously knew nothing of it.3The remaining nations are: the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.4They were for the testing and proving of Israel to know whether Israel would listen and obey the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by Moses.


Judges : The constant training

How many times have we encountered the same problems in our life and complain to God about the issue ? Well, the reason is simple problems and issues in life strengthens our spiritual muscle.

Being someone who used to go to the gym, to build stamina we had to do constant reps using small weights, but to build muscles we had to use weights that is at the limits of our strength. The reason was to break the tendons in our body and then when it heals, the muscle gets bigger. But one truth i learn as well, once you get the muscle you have to constantly exercise to keep the shape of the body. Really hassle, but you got to do it to keep the shape.

The same is true for our spiritual muscle too. Problems are there to help provide constant spiritual strength and occasionally you will find a problem that seems bigger than what you can handle but its purpose is to increase your spiritual muscle. Therefore once you pass the test, you will find that you become stronger.

In judges we learn that God left the gentiles of the land to test Israelites to see if they will walk with him. And to build up their spiritual muscle. Unfortunately they failed the test and was judged by God and only when they have been oppressed did they decide to turn back to God

We need to learn from the lessons of the Israelites, problems will always be there but its there to help build our spiritual muscle. Decide in our hearts to overcome and not to walk away from the test.

Amen