During the week as I studied the bible, I came across this interesting verse in the bible. My first thought and reaction to this verse was, “My God is indeed a man of war ” as described in Exodus 15:13. But then as I pondered upon it all week long, it began to become clear to me God’s ability to choose multiple ways to teach us things He wants us to learn. I began to think of ways God engages our sensory organs to drive home salient lessons He has for us. This verse that I speak about is Judges 3:1-2
These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. He did this to teach warfare to the generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle - Judges 3:1-2
So these beautiful children of the Lord lived peacefully in the land of Canaan, unknown to them their father in heaven prepared a table before them. A table where they would sit it out with the enemies round about them, a table where God was going to instill salient lessons into their lives. The Lord is a man of war and it only makes sense that many of His children inherit this nature. They could probably not learn of this nature by mere words, certain things are best learned from experience. Therefore God had to engage all of their senses to drive the lesson home. I am almost sure these men and women who lived during this time would never forget the lessons they learned from the Lord as He taught them strategies to conquer their enemies.
Meditating on this verse brought into perspective, the multiple ways God teaches His children. God is so dynamic that He utilizes so many ways to teach us, from His word to first-hand experience, through His prophets, through dreams, and many more. It also brought into perspective many divinely orchestrated good and not-so-good situations God permits so that He can teach us salient lessons for life. I remember vividly in the year 2016, the Lord asked me to leave my job at the time which I did happily because I was somewhat exhausted and spent from it. I left my job at the time hoping that God would give me a new one at the snap of my fingers. I left the job with all my hopes in the connections my daddy had would pull through but all of that failed woefully! My daddy has a brother who sat on the board of one the insurance firms in Nigeria so I was almost sure that he would help me secure a seat somewhere, somehow. Do you know what? My help came from a stranger, it came from a man who I did not know. This man went all the way to help me even when I had flawlessly failed at the last stage of the interview. He just took an unexplainable interest in helping me. Now I understand this inexplicable interest as the favor of God. Overall, what I learned through that experience orchestrated by Jehovah Himself is absolute dependence on Him and Him only. Many years down the line, the Lord has reminded me and reinforced this lesson to me through different experiences.
The meat and core of this blog post is to bring us to a place of reflection; What circumstances currently surround you? Is it divinely orchestrated or not? Is God trying to teach you certain things or reveal dimensions of Himself to you? My dear brother and sister in Christ, take the time today to take stock of events around you and tune in to the lessons from the Lord instead of lamentations and complaints. God told Abraham to sacrifice His precious son because He wanted to see if Abraham truly feared and loved Him – Genesis 22:12, God hardened the heart of Pharoah so He could show His mighty power to the Egyptians and even more to the Israelites – Exodus 14:4-28, the Lord intentionally left some sworn enemies of the Israelites around them to teach them warfare- Judges 3:1-2 . So my dear, what is the Lord teaching you in this season?
Happy Learning my dear 🙂