DEVOTION
JUDGES
HIS ALONE
Judges 3:1-11
3:1 These are the nations the
LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars
in Canaan 2(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the
Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of
the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in
the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left
to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD's commands,
which he had given their forefathers through Moses. 5 The Israelites lived
among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6
They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their
sons, and served their gods. 7 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD;
they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. 8 The
anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of
Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject
for eight years. 9 But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a
deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. 10
The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge and went
to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel,
who overpowered him. 11 So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel
son of Kenaz died.
NIV
These people groups the LORD left
in Israel were supposed to give the generation that never knew about warfare experience
by driving out the Philistines, Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites from their
land. God tested them, but they failed, intermarried with those foreign people, and served their gods. It is clear they were dumb people, forgetting the
LORD and his commands. How could they not only forget the LORD but give their daughters
to them and take their daughters for their sons? There is folly in this action
for in some sense it destroyed the family lines and depleted the blue-blooded
Israelite. However, the worst of it was they served other gods and God’s anger
burned against them and he made it possible for them to be sold into the hands of the
king of Aram Naharaim. Of course, because they cried out to the LORD, he raised a judge to deliver them. That same sort of situation happened too many times
when Israel would go astray and become in bondage then cry out to the LORD
and he saved them. What do we learn from all this? First, we should never ever,
not even once, ever forget about the Lord and go after some other god. Second,
we should not intermarry with the world. We could see that in a real marriage,
as a believer marrying a non-believer and becoming influenced by the non-faith
of their spouse and becoming more invested in the world than in the Lord. Surely,
there are exceptions and the believer brings their non-believing spouse to
faith in Jesus. However, the real danger is when we who are the people of God
look for and even chase after some of the gods of this world by intermarrying with the world's ideologies and philosophies. We might even
attempt to serve some of those gods and serve the Lord. The question is how
successful are we in serving both the Lord and one or more gods of this world.
We may not be able to define all the gods of this world, but some of them could
be fame and fortune, that is success and money. How can we trust our wealth and
trust the Lord? It just seems that is sort of like the Israelites attempted and
it did not work for them and it cannot work for us. This is not to say we should
not have wealth for that comes from the Lord’s hand. But let us not get so
invested in any god of this world, or even attempt to intermarry with any god,
for we are the bride of Christ and his alone.