Today's Scripture Reading (March 8, 2022): Judges 3
"It
isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it is the grain of sand in your
shoe." The quote is attributed to that great sage of the ages, Anonymous.
But that does not mean that it isn't true. The great battles rarely wear us out;
it is the small things that stay with us in good times and bad that create in
us a bone-weary exhaustion. After all, for the great battles of life, the struggle
allows the body to give us a surge of adrenaline that gives us the energy needed
to meet the challenge. But for the small battles, that added boost is missing.
Instead, the small battles often defeat us because they are ever with us, and
from these struggles, we can find no relief.
Judges
clearly states that some Canaanite nations were not pushed out of The Promised Land
because of the disobedience of Israel. But others counties were left because God
decided to leave them in Israel's path. And these nations were there to provide
the struggle for future generations of Israelites. They would be the "pebble
in the shoe" in Israel's existence. These countries would be left to
provide a test for the generations of Israelites present in the nation who had
not been part of the taking of the Promised Land. Israel's reality, then and
now, is that its existence has never been without struggle. There have always
been nations who existed around Israel who have worked hard against her
existence. For Israel, a political struggle would always be a reality, so the
people needed to be ready for the coming battle.
But
it is also a reality of our Christian lives. Too often, we seem to believe that
Christianity should exist without struggle. We should not be put down for our
faith, and the laws of the nations should reflect what it is that we believe.
But that is unrealistic and not reflected in the pages of scripture. If we want
to live Christian lives, we will always have to be willing to push back against
a culture that is determined to force us in a direction that we do not want to
go or against detractors who question our right to exist. And we will have to
fight with our desires to respond in a way that is not in keeping with our
Christian faith and the way that our faith instructs us to live. The temptation
will always be with us to cut corners and react in unchristian ways to the
struggle of life.
And
above that, we all have our lifelong personal battles with sin. These battles
are our "pebbles in the shoe," which threaten to wear us out. I love the
imagery of Pastor David Guzik as he speaks of this passage. Guzik reminds us
that "No one likes the struggle against
sin, but the battle is good for us. The symbol of Christianity is a cross, not
a feather bed" (David Guzik, italics his).
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Judges 4
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