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Judges 3 – Learn to Fight
Learn to Fight
The book of Judges teaches many expected, uncomfortable lessons such as we are often the source of our problems. However, an unexpected lesson I recently learned helps us deal with the problem of pain and suffering when it’s not our fault. Specifically, why does God allow us to go through difficult times? It’s because we need to learn how to fight!
“These are the nations the LORD left in order to test all those in Israel who had experienced none of the wars in Canaan. This was to teach the future generations of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before.” (CSB’17 Judges 3:1-2)
Life is easier for some because others fought before and for them. Parents who work hard so their children don’t have to have lazy children. Over protected generations who have everything handed to them will lead to generations unable to protect themselves. Over protection leads to unpreparedness.
Notice this pattern:
1. Easy times lead to weak individuals.
2. Weak individuals leads to hard times.
3. Hard times lead to strong individuals.
How can we prepare for difficult times? God in his infinite wisdom knew that strength comes from learning to deal with problems directly. In Judges this meant literal enemies, and that lesson applies to “enemies” today such as illness, disappointment, problem-people, and such.
When life gets tough, we can surrender, whine, fall into a pit of self-pity…or we can learn to fight!
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