“Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, … And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD…” (Judges 3:1,4).
TEXT — Judges 3:1-11
Message
The children of Israel were to possess the land which the Lord promised them – a land flowing with milk and honey. But, because of their penchant for compromise and backsliding, the Lord refused to drive away all the nations which they were to dispossess of the land. God decided to leave some of these nations in order to use them to “…prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.” Unfortunately, however, the Israelites failed the test. Instead of keeping the commandments of God, they inter-married with the heathen and did contrary to the commandment of God. “Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia…” (Judges 3:8).
Sometimes, the people God leaves in our life or allows to be around us might have been designed by God to test us and develop desirable qualities – godly virtues – in us. Some pine, murmur and even pray that God should move them away or take them from us. At other times, we place ourselves on a spiritual pedestal that is not true. We brag like Peter only to deny the Lord when we are tested. How we need to be true to ourselves and to the prompting of Him Who walks in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Life itself is a school; we must be tested. But we don’t have to fail all the time. If we trust the Lord all times, watch and pray like Abraham, Job, Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach and Abednego, then we can pass the tests of life and move higher in our walk with the Lord.
Tests and trials are necessary drills that strengthen the soldiers of Christ. You can be more than a conqueror, through Christ Who loves you and thereby reign in life through the daily strength He gives. The pilgrim who lives by the faith of the Son of God, looking unto Him always will always triumph in life. You can pass your life tests and move higher like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
