Judges 3:1

The Message

These are the nations that God left there, using them to test the Israelites who had no experience in the Canaanite wars. He did it to train the descendants of Israel, the ones who had no battle experience, in the art of war. He left the five Philistine tyrants, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon to Hamath’s Pass. They were there to test Israel and see whether they would obey God’s commands that were given to their parents through Moses.

Cross References

Job 23:10

“But he knows where I am and what I’ve done. He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I’ll pass the test with honors. I’ve followed him closely, my feet in his footprints, not once swerving from his way. I’ve obeyed every word he’s spoken, and not just obeyed his advice—I’ve treasured it.

Exodus 15:25

So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet.

Proverbs 17:3

As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan, so our lives are refined by God.

Jeremiah 6:27

God gave me this task: “I have made you the examiner of my people, to examine and weigh their lives. They’re a thickheaded, hard-nosed bunch, rotten to the core, the lot of them. Refining fires are cranked up to white heat, but the ore stays a lump, unchanged. It’s useless to keep trying any longer. Nothing can refine evil out of them. Men will give up and call them ‘slag,’ thrown on the slag heap by me, their God.”

1 Peter 4:12

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

Judges 1:1

A time came after the death of Joshua when the People of Israel asked God, “Who will take the lead in going up against the Canaanites to fight them?”

Judges 2:10

Eventually that entire generation died and was buried. Then another generation grew up that didn’t know anything of God or the work he had done for Israel. * * *

Judges 2:23

That’s why God let those nations remain. He didn’t drive them out or let Joshua get rid of them.