Do you ever wonder why our heavenly Father doesn’t answer some of our prayers more quickly, and in the way that we hope and expect? Do you ever contemplate why our lives are so often fraught with difficulties, and why many times there is one challenge heaped upon another with little time to breathe in between? Why can’t our lives as believers in Christ be easier? Why all the struggles? Why the perpetual adversities? What good do they accomplish? How is our Lord glorified, and how are we benefited in and by our many problems?

And then, we could ask ourselves about temptation and sin. Why doesn’t the Lord at once remove all of our spiritual enemies and those things that tempt us so powerfully? Why don’t we have a quicker victory over those pesky sins that seem to hunt us?

To be sure, these are good and appropriate questions that each of us have wrestled with. And the good news is that they are answered for us in the Word of God. One place where the solution becomes visible is the Book of Judges. In the opening chapters of this Old Covenant story of the nation of Israel, we find some answers to these troubling questions. For example, consider Judges 2:20-3:2. In this section of the book’s introduction we discover something that will help us to understand the divine purpose for our trials and temptations. 2:22 speaks of the Lord’s desire to “test” His people. And then 3:2 describes the Lord’s intention to “teach war” to His people.

Testing us and teaching us to fight! This is what the Lord is doing in all of our experiences, particularly the ones that are the most difficult, troubling, and even tempting! In a most unexpected way, it is in the Lord’s ‘school of affliction and combat’ that we find the most wonderful blessings of all!

On Sunday, we will consider these things from the Book of Judges, especially 2:11-3:6. I hope you will have some time to read these inspired words, mediate upon them, and pray that the Lord will bless us as we come together to hear them proclaimed.