Judges 3
SADLY, contrary to the revealed mind of God was the dwelling of the children of Israel among those they should have put to death. In Joshua 23:12, 1312Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: 13Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. (Joshua 23:12‑13) their leader had solemnly warned the people on this very point, and spoke of marriage with these idolaters, but the warning was lost upon them, for the Israelites lived among the six nations, and intermarried with them, and became idol worshipers with them. Because of these things the anger of God was hot against Israel, and they were lint under the rule of Chushan—rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia.
Eight years of oppression are ended by God’s raising up Othniel, Caleb’s nephew of whom we have read before, to deliver the children of Israel. After this the land had rest for forty years, and Othniel died. Quick to forget the admonitions of the deliverer God had raised up, now that he was dead, the people fell back into sin. Therefore, God uses Satan’s power to chasten them, in Eglon, king of Moab, aided by the Ammonites and Amalekites. This oppression lasted eighteen years, when Fluid is used to free the people. Eighty years pass, and Shamgar delivered Israel, as it appears, from their western enemy the Philistines.
Weak were the instruments which God raised up to work deliverance for His people here, but they were each just what was needed. Victory in each case we may be sure was won by God’s omnipotent power, however feeble and contemptible the instrument.
It was when the children of Israel cried to their God that He sent deliverance; clearly God was not in their thoughts when everything went well with them.
How like God’s people today! If they had not been put in hard circumstances, their unbelief would not have been less but more, and they would have missed the opportunity to learn of God, as well as to learn what was in their own hearts. For the same reasons God permits His children today to pass through trial.
ML 10/8/1925