The Enemies Remain

Judges 2:21-22 ~ "I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not."

Through Moses, and then Joshua, the LORD delivered the nation of Israel to the promised land and then conquered the land through Divine victory after victory. Red Seas and Jordan Rivers, fortified cities and towering walls were nothing to the LORD who led His people into the land He promised to Abraham. They took great delight in the fact that God was with them. Until, that is, when the nation forgot the LORD. A telling statement is made in Judges 2:10, "And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel." The generation of Joshua, and all that generation that knew the victory of the LORD, departed in death. The generation next forgot the LORD their God.

The self-indulgent, promiscuous and pleasure-seeking worship of the former nations in Canaan still lingered in the memories of those who were not completely destroyed. And the nation of Israel, in their complacency, fell into the waiting arms of the false gods and plunged themselves into the idolatrous practices of the nations they conquered. 

And so it is that God allowed those remnant nations of false gods to remain amongst the people of Israel in order to leave for them a test of their love for and faithfulness to the LORD. 

What are we to learn from this?

Dear one, God has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the world and into the promised land of Jesus Christ. You are no longer of the world any more, you have fled to take hold of that salvation that is offered to all who will believe. In great power and display of His grace, Jesus Christ gave up His life to rescue you from the dominion of darkness and deliver you into His own Kingdom. 

Early on, you were like a warrior and with joy you entered into the battle against sin. Has there been victories in your life through the Divine hand of God? Have great strongholds been toppled because of your faithful obedience to His word? And now, perhaps years later, has all that was once won through your resolute trusting in Christ seem now more like a distant memory, forgotten in the pages long since turned? Has complacency and ease drained the fight out of your soul so that it becomes easy to play with the little sins left behind?

My friend... those are the enemies which remain. God has allowed them to remain. Some sins He has vanquished completely, utterly destroyed in the splendor of His salvation. Others seem to have vanished into the shadows until an opportune time for them to strike. And that most favorable time for sin is when we let our guard down. Recall what was said of the devil in his temptation of our Lord, "And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13). The nation of Israel was strong as long as Joshua led them and the people remembered the deliverance of God. And, beloved, you will be strong as long as you follow Christ and remember the salvation purchased for you on the cross.

People have asked why God does not remove every sin from the believer's life. Why does not God simply destroy the devil and eliminate even the possibility of temptation? He will someday. But for now He allows the remnants of the enemy of our soul--those remaining sins that will strike without warning--in order to test us, that we also should take care to walk in all His ways. 

In the great dilemma with the "messenger of Satan," the Apostle Paul sought for God's release, three times, from those "thorns in his flesh." God's answer to Paul is His answer to us as well, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Lest we allow ourselves to grow complacent, let us never forget that we need the power of God's grace as much now as we did in the beginning. For, until we stand in the very presence of the King of kings, there are enemies that remain.

In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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