When God’s people fail to hold one another accountable for their covenant relationship with Him, He may, as part of His discipline, bring enemies against them to correct their errant ways. Israel would come to know this painfully well.

At times in Israel’s history nothing short of oppression would cause them to come to their senses and turn from their sinful ways. We see this over and over in the Book of Judges, as well as in the records of the historical prophets. God warned His people in His Law that this was an option in His tool kit of discipline, and He did not hesitate to bring it into play when necessary.

Such oppression did not always come as a corrective. At times it came as a test – we’ve seen the difference between tests and trials. Would the people, faced with persecution or oppression, look to the Lord and be made stronger in Him?

God still uses this discipline today, and we need to remember that even the trials foisted upon us by hostile outsiders are part of God’s will and plan to draw us more deeply into our covenant relationship with Him.

When these trials occur – whether the enemies are humans or spirits – we must, first, give thanks; then we must seek to discover if there is any sin in usprovoking this. Finally we must move to overcome the trial through repentanceor to strengthen ourselves to persevere through it by waiting on the Lord.

Such provisional disciplines can help us to find our way back from disobedience or help us to bear up under the Fatherly testing of the Lord.

T. M. Moore

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click hereto see the weekly studies available thus far.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.