Judges 1:1-6 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel
inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to
fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given
the land into his hand.” And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me
into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites.
And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.”
There are three main things that can be seen in this
passage. I will elaborate on them over the next three posts. The first one is
that before taking in hand any important matter I need to seek god's direction
in prayer (v. 1). In verse 1 its says, “Israel inquired of the Lord.” This is always the best place to start.
Praying or looking to God in the midst of change, stress or struggle. I’ve seen
this in my own life. I am going through it now in the process of changing jobs.
The key point is to seek God before acting, even through the
stress of facing a major transition. I didn’t just seek God asking Him to bless
a decision we’ve already made—I literally asked Him to direct the decision in
the first place to the point that I believe he gave me signs to do so.
Transitional times are times when a person especially needs God’s direction. In
Judges, Joshua was gone, and Israel was entering a new season. Likewise,
changing jobs can bring uncertainty about finances, relationships,
responsibilities, and the future.
Prayer should come before action. Israel didn’t immediately
decide which tribe should attack. They first “asked the Lord.” God may
give direction one step at a time. Thereby encouraging or even forcing us to go
to Him in prayer continually to determine each subsequent step. God answered Israel’s
question specifically: “Judah shall go up.” He did not give Israel the entire
plan at once though. Likewise, I may not receive the whole plan for my future,
but I can ask God to show us the next faithful step. Seeking God doesn’t mean
there will be no difficulty. Judah still had to fight. Prayer doesn’t
necessarily remove the challenge; it puts us in the right posture to face it
mentally. Our confidence ultimately rests in God’s leading. God said, “I have
given the land into his hand.” Israel’s success was ultimately dependent upon
God rather than their own strength. Yet…there were actions the Israelites had
to perform themselves. Just as I had to put the next step of my plan in motion
by resigning and entering into a risky period of no pay and no healthcare.
This means I had to start distrusting my own wisdom. I was
already having misgivings as to my motives to take the job I just resigned
from. What I realized is seeking God’s direction means more than asking God to
bless my plans. It means being willing to surrender my plans to His answer if
it does not align with mine. The job I have inevitably taken is one I normally
wouldn’t have. My previous job was one I thought was an easy decision. In these
two instances, logic was flipped. God’s will should’ve been abided by. I
believe only in the most recent scenario this path was followed. The decision to take the last job as based in my understanding and aligned with my comfort zone. A mistake to be sure. All events are
in the hands of God's unerring providence even the decision to take the last
job. It was to fulfill something God desired of me even if it is not plainly
evident. Success and failure should always prompt us to look to God for
guidance. Nothing is a failure in God's plan.
Is what is happening now God’s genuine will for me? I guess I need to ask myself: (1) Am I genuinely asking God what He wants, or am I asking Him to confirm what I already want? (2) Am I willing to accept “no” or “wait” as an answer? (3) Are my motives being shaped by Scripture, prayer, wise counsel—or by comfort, money, frustration, or fear? (4) Am I trusting God’s providence even when I cannot see how everything will work out? As my father used to say, "To make a deal, you have to be willing to walk away from it."
There is also a good balance here. Seeking God doesn't mean becoming paralyzed and waiting for some extraordinary sign. I use Scripture, prayer, wisdom, counsel, circumstances, and godly judgment, while recognizing that God remains sovereign over the outcome.
There is a counterbalance to the idea to whether I am in my
will, or God’s outlined in Jeremiah 41. A passage that helps me assure whether
or not I am in God’s will. The Israelites are already engaged in change or
trial and are looking for direction…
Jeremiah 41: 1-3 Then all the army officers, including
Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah[a] son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from
the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him,
“Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire
remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left.
3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we
should do.”
In verse 7 or as the narrative states, ten days later God
answered Jeremiah’s petition.
Jeremiah 41:10-16 If you stay in this land, I will build you
up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have
relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of
the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the
Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I
will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you
to your land.’ “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so
disobey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt,
where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ then
hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord
Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and
you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and
the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.
The Jeremiah passage gives me a particularly powerful sentence to incorporate into my lesson here: I must be careful that my interpretation of God’s will is not simply my own desires dressed in a facade and religious clothing. Unfortunately, as is often the case, I have asked God's direction, hoping that the answer will be in alignment with my own desires, and then do my best to twist it into that alignment. Sadly, what I do when I do this is I am confabulating God’s holy answer with my own sin/error. Even then, God can bend my disobedience and sin to His will. He can bend out mistakes to His desired outcome. Regardless, when seeking God's guidance, special care should be taken so to humble my will. I need to be able to do that so that I can be ready to act upon the answer God gives me. No matter how contrary it may be to my own heart. This exact idea fits with Judges because the larger problem in the book is that Israel repeatedly did what was right in their own eyes. The book begins with Israel asking God, “Who shall go up first?”—but as the story progresses, they increasingly stop looking to God and follow their own wisdom.
As a human this can be very hard to accept especially when cases of financial loss, sacrifice
of worldly advantages or pleasures, self-humiliation and self-denial,
resentment, jealousy, pride, vanity, praise are at stake. We’re all human. We’re
all flawed. All have desires contrary to the will of God. I need to crush them
and align myself to God.
What ways do I "Ask the Lord" concerning the
course I need to pursue? I have a few tried and true courses of action.
(1) First and foremost I pray and engage conversation with
God directly. Its a relationship first.
(2) Secondly, if God doesn’t plainly reveal it in the
Scripture, He can impress it upon my mind directly in thought or dream.
(3) Third, I seek the counsel of Scripture. That I will
see light and truth from the words that are the expression of the mind and will
of God. There is no state of darkness, or confusion as to the path of my duty
to God in the Word. In the Bible it is in black and white. Most often my
answers to prayer are outlined in the Scripture. It may take a little
cleverness and inductive thinking to see the answer, but it’s in there. God’s
word is always a light on my path (Psalm 119:105). There is no
question of morality or conduct that the Bible cannot shed truth on. The
Bible has an answer for every question if approached with the right heart and
mind. The answer must be sought in intelligent, prayerful study, not as a
matter of blind chance or in the presumptuous expectation of a miraculous
answer.
(4) He can work through others through wise counsel. In this
way my own family, friends and acquaintances have acted as judges and prophets
in my very own life. The interesting thing about working through others is that
some of those others may not even be believers. He can even work through my
enemies and has. I am not so arrogant that I cannot learn a lesson vicariously
though those I do not like (that is one of the reasons we are called to love our
enemies). If God can use Satan to His ends, he can use any method or agency.
The instruments of His will are endless. Suffering, stress, affliction,
success and so on. If the answer is sought faithfully and earnestly, it will
come eventually. It may not come on my schedule which it often doesn’t but then
again…patience isn’t one of my strengths.
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