Skip to main content

What is your iron chariot?

And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.
JUDGES 1:19

At the first reading of this verse, it seems like the author of Judges is suggesting the iron may be too strong for God. In fact his point is totally the opposite. Prior to this incident the author of Judges tells us about the various victories over the Cananites that God gave the people of God, especially of the brutal Adoni-Bezek. God had done this just as He had promised the people after the death of Joshua. So there is no doubt that the God of Israel is omnipotent!

The problem is that before this incident, the people of God have been following God half-heartedly. They have been relying on their strength rather than trusting God. And this failure to trust God has become obvious with tougher opponents! When they see the iron chariots, they forget that God had promised to fight for them, instead they turn back in fear. The fear of the iron chariots has led them to quit their mission to take the land properly. Sometimes it looks like you are trusting God until we face a situation that really exposes your lack of trust in God.

What is important to remember that it is God who has allowed this opposition to test His people, as he says later in Judges (See Judges 2:20 - 23). God is full of grace and because He is gracious he wants His people to be fully obedience to Him. And part of his preferred method for making us more obedient is to allow our disobedience to play out so that we see how much we need Him and repent! Judah failure to finish their conquest because of the opposition of the iron chariot is grace in action because their lack of trust in God is now exposed so that they should turn and repent before God.

May be you currently going through a period of divine frustration. God has allowed an “iron chariot” in your life that seems impregnable. You think the chariot is the problem. Have you considered whether God is allowing that “iron chariot” to bring you to the end of your faith so that your only dependence is on God? May of us are deluded in thinking we are following God when in fact we are only depending on ourselves. So we need to carefully examine our lives and see whether the problems we are facing are as a result of divine frustration!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she

The Price of Obedience

If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people’s plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it—“You call this Christianity?” We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be. - OSWALD CHAMBERS This is by far the hardest thing we are likely to struggle with as we seek to live lives that are totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. What if obeying God meant that your family members lost a well-known or well-loved circle of acquaintances? Had to move to a smaller house? Drove uglier cars? Wore older clothes? Lived by a weekly rather monthly budget?Accepting this part of obeying God is especially difficult for men or women who are the breadwinners for their families. The c

Workers for Your Joy (A Review)

Workers for your Joy (WFYJ) is about what Christ calls leaders in his church to be and do, particularly the teaching office in the church (i.e. pastor or elder).  It presents a biblical vision of leadership by going through the fifteen qualifications of elders listed 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The central question Mathis is basically asking is – how should we pastor or lead the church in light of these qualifications? The target audience of the book seems to be those who are in the early stages of pastoral ministry. The book was part of the seminary syllabus at Bethlehem. However, the author does explicitly state that the book is also meant to be of use to church members in considering what Christ expects of leadership in the local church.   Mathis has written this book because he believes leadership has fallen on hard times. The church in the west and the society around us has become increasingly discontent with being led due to the high-profile cases that have sprung about leadership.