God’s Purpose for Israel in the Time of the Judges

What is the key to the book of Judges? I think we ought to take note of the three reasons that the writer gives for this phase of Israel’s history. They are found in chapter two and chapter three.

He gives three reasons for this phase in Israel’s history. The first is in Judges 2:20–23: to visit the disobedience of the children of Israel. The second is in Judges 3:4: to prove the children of Israel as to what was really in their heart. The third reason is in Judges 3:2: to teach them to war. These were the three reasons that whoever wrote Judges gave for this account. First, to visit the disobedience of the children of Israel with punishment, secondly, to prove the new generation as to what was in their heart, and thirdly, to teach them to war. I think these three things teach us something about the Lord.

To Visit the Disobedience of the Children of Israel

The Lord always chastens those He loves. We never get away with anything. If as children of God, we do something, we may not have to pay the penalty, but we will be chastened, and we will learn by our chastening. “Before I was afflicted, I went astray” (see Psalm 119:67). The Lord afflicts us and then reins us in. That is why it is often so tragic to see children of God who are disobeying the Lord or leaving issues unsettled with the Lord because the only way the Lord can really establish us is by chastening and by affliction. He shaves us of so much of our waywardness and fashions us in a new way.

To Prove What was in Their Hearts

The second thing is that the Lord is always proving us. I bet you have noticed that. He led them through the wilderness to prove them, to find out what was in their hearts. He is always proving. I bet you have noticed how the Lord has always got things on probation. Always, always, always, the Lord is proving, proving, proving. He puts us into situations and puts us into trials, all to prove us, just to find out what ground is in our hearts.

This, I think, is something very interesting. However, the thing that I think we should dwell on is this: if the Lord visits our disobedience and leads us this way to prove us, He leaves thorns in our side to prove us. He will teach us through our failures and weaknesses. This is one of the most wonderful things: He teaches us even through our failures. This is the most amazing thing.

To Teach Them to War

He makes us men and women of war. Why does the Lord allow this? It is partly because it was the only way He could teach His people. It was the only way He could teach them. It was the only way He could prove them and instruct them. He had to teach them to war. They did not know war. The other generation, now grown up, had forgotten what war was like and they had to learn about it.

So, I think we, together, have to learn just how the Lord does lead us in our ways. Some people seem to be so terribly upset when they have made a mistake of the smallest kind. They seem to think the Lord is going to cut them out altogether, but in actual fact, your mistakes are often woven into the Lord’s way for you.

You may not know it, but there is nothing, not a single thing in this whole universe, including Satan and the whole of hell that can do anything to you but increase you [in Christ]. When we get hold of this, it changes everything. When we view this history through a magnifying glass, we find that the Lord is just simply proving everything. He is bringing everything under judgement, and He is exposing all the weakness that is in His people.

When we take the overall picture from end to end, we find that the Lord is steadily working through His people. This is why Paul says to the Corinthians, “there must needs be factions and divisions amongst you that those who are approved may be made manifest” (see I Corinthians 11:19). Factions and divisions can only bring out what is of God and can only expose what is not in the people.

In the same way, a thorn in the flesh, as Paul had, can only bring out the beauty and the loveliness and the strength of Christ in a believer. That is all it can do. If there is anything else, if we can be offended in the Lord by these things, we will go under, and we shall be exposed as having compromised, mixed motives in our hearts. So, let us learn simply from this that the Lord is teaching us through these very things to be men and women of war—in the right way hardened.