My name is Kimberly Thomas. I want to welcome you to God Today. Today I want to share a little bit with you from Judges 3. Judges 3 is an interesting chapter. We see in it that God talks to us about the Philistines. In Judges 3, God says that He leaves the Philistines in the land to test us. If we look at that in context, it shows us that God left the Philistines the land to test a generation who hadn’t been tested in battle yet.
I know that sometimes we feel like we have already been tested in battle, yet God still leaves the Philistines in our land. If we look at what the Philistines mean, one interpretation of that is “to wallow”. When things don’t seem to be going quite right, sometimes we feel like we want to wallow where that testing is happening, where the Philistines are in our land. God says that He left them there to test us. If you feel like you have been tested today, or this week, or this month, or this year, know that that testing is God’s purpose and provision for us. We are tested so that we might be winners of the battle.
It is interesting in Judges 3, also, that we see that no matter what happened, even when the Israelites were disobedient, or there was evil in the land, or evil in the camp, God still sent deliverers. God said in verse 9 that He sent “Othniel” as a deliverer of the people. In verse 15, God says that He sent “Ehud” as a deliverer of the people. In verse 31, we see that God sent “Shamgar” as a deliverer of the people. The scripture says that Shamgar slayed 600 Philistines with just an oxbow. This says to me that God will provide whatever we need. He might deliver us from the hand of the enemy, from the hands of evil, from the hands of our attackers. We truly are being delivered each day. As we know, Jesus is our great deliverer.
Be encouraged today. Even where you feel like the Philistines may still be in the land, and you still may be being tested, God has brought deliverers. He has brought Jesus to you as a great deliverer. I speak blessing to you, freedom and liberty, and whatever you need to be delivered from, that God is there to do that for you. Amen.