S)"4 They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses."
Judges 3:4 (NASB)
O) We've been talking about character development in church lately. This is another instance where God allowed struggle to persist for His children as a means to draw them into seeking Him, and to test their faithfulness and character. Unfortunately, it seems the collective nation was failing this test throughout the book of Judges and beyond. But, it's interesting because, even the lingering presence of those nations was a failing of the Israelites before this generation (in Judges 3). So, God was using the failing of the previous generation as the test for the current generation. That is to say, the LORD could have supernaturally drove out the lingering peoples that their (new generation) fathers failed to expel, but instead He chose to leave them as the new tests.
A) Now, with this idea of lingering failures becoming new tests, the question then becomes this: What kind of failed tests or incomplete disciplines might I end up leaving behind that become new tests for my children? So, here's the new perspective on my struggles, trials, and the discipline God is ever-trying to sharpen in me: I need to view each test of my own, not only in the context of my life and how it will secondarily-affect my children. Now I need to view times of striving as eventual tests my children may have to face on their own. It becomes all the more important that I leave no unfinished work, no failed tests, no course unlearned. It also becomes more and more evident that I need to take time to educate my children, as well, so that they will learn as many lessons and as much wisdom as possible, before making their own mistakes.
P) Father, Your discipline is pointed and out of Your tremendous love for me. Never let me forget that. With each challenge I face, God, let me approach it with a full understanding of the stakes and implications at hand. Holy Spirit, give me the kind of long-term, eternal perspective that the Father has. Let me be encouraged all the more, by the effect I can have on my children's success. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
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