Judges 3

 (Judges 3:1-2)1 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan 2 (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it,

The record here seems to be that God "actively" left these tribes to hone their war skills. In reality, it was the tragic result of the Israelis’ unwillingness to completely drive out the seven Canaanite tribes. Judge is a book that records the vicious circle between strength and weakness in the people of God that has been inevitable for the ages: The most common content in testimony is often the testimony of "being disciplined by God," but after each discipline, can we escape this history completely? The lesson of history is that mankind often does not remember the lesson. The loving Lord Jesus knew our weakness and sent the Comforter Holy Spirit to help us out of this vicious circle.

(Matthew 14:25-26) 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.

It is said that for those who have received the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will teach us everything, that is, before the wrong thing is about to be done, the Holy Spirit will remind us. So, the apostle Paul appeared to say this:

(Romans 7: 24-25) 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

He is telling us here: It is impossible to be sanctified on your own! But after he had received the Holy Spirit, he discovered that people can only rely on the Holy Spirit to overcome.

Today, many brothers and sisters in the Lord have already received the Holy Spirit in the True Jesus Church, but they are still weak. What is the reason? Let the author tell a story:

The human heart is like a villa with twelve rooms. We are the masters inside.

A man was sitting in the living room on the first floor and admiring it leisurely after he had arranged his house as he pleased. At this time, there was a knock on the door outside. He asked, "Who is it!", the knocker did not respond. He asked again but still did not respond. So curiously, he secretly opened a crack in the door to see what happened. Unexpectedly, it was a black devil. With great strength, he pushed the door and rushed in, messing up the twelve-room villa and destroying everything that should be broken. When the devil is satisfied, he will go away!

The master had no choice but to tidy up. When the cleaning was almost done, knocked on the door again. The master didn't doubt that the devil came again, so he looked again to see who was knocking on the door. He didn't expect that it was the devil again because it had a sense of taste and brought companions this time. As you can imagine, the result was even more miserable than last time!

The owner was exhausted, and finally managed to a little decent. Unexpectedly, there was another knock on the door. Unlike the past, this voice is gentle and slow, not as rushing and rough as before. He asked, "Who? I won't open the door if you don't speak!" "I am Jesus! Would you like to open the door for me?" It turned out to be Jesus, who asked politely.

The master almost cried when he heard that Jesus was coming! Open the door quickly. Jesus entered his heart politely! Jesus asked, "Then, can I live here?" "Of course!" The master couldn't wait to respond. Jesus asked, "Where can I live?" "Ah! Lord Jesus, come! I will give you the biggest and best room here!" Jesus smiled, nodded, and followed upstairs to the biggest and best room in this villa.

The host felt relieved and said, "Jesus lives with me, I am not afraid of anything!"

"Knocking!" There was another hurried knock on the door, thinking, Jesus is here, what can you do about me? He  opened up the door. Unexpectedly, these demons seemed to enter the uninhabited state and destroy them arbitrarily! At this time, the master panicked and cried, "Lord! Save me!" Before he finished shouting, Jesus had already appeared before his eyes! When the demons saw Jesus here, they ran away in fright.

The master was injured and asked with tears, "Lord Jesus! Why can the devil come to tease me when you are with me?" Jesus said, "As long as you call me, I will help you! But I am not in your heart. I cannot help you make your own opinion without asking politely.

The owner asked, "Then what should I do?" Jesus said, "If you want, you can let me be the owner of this house." "What should I do?" The host continued. Jesus said, "Open up all the twelve rooms of your heart. Would you like it?"

This is embarrassing for this master because there is a room that he chooses to lock forever. After all, it is filthy, fornication, resentment towards someone, dissatisfaction with the church... After a lot of thought and struggle, he said, "Okay! Lord Jesus, I am willing to give you all, and even open that dirty room! But please strengthen me and help me clean it.

Jesus got "keys” to all the rooms," so he sat down on the first floor.

At this time, the knocking on the door became fiercer, and it seemed that more than one devil was about to make trouble. The owner was terrified when he heard such a rapid and rough knock on the door, and thought: "What should I do?" Unexpectedly, Jesus slowly stood up, patted the owner on the shoulder, and motioned for him to continue sitting. God said," I am the master and I am in charge!" Since then, the devil dared not come again!

At this point in the story, we discovered that Jesus is in our heart, and Jesus is our king, but they are two different things. No wonder Jesus reminded and revealed the "Equation of Life Happiness":

 (Matthew 6:31-34) 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its things. Sufficient for the day is its trouble.

Among them, you must first seek his kingdom and his righteousness, and these things will be added to you. It is the equation of happiness in life. As long as the Holy Spirit fills us, the Lord Jesus is our king, and our hearts become the "kingdom of God" in which God reigns, the vicious tour in the book of Judges is over!

Translated by 余姿瑩

Judges 2

 (Judges 2:1)
 Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you.

From the beginning of Judges chapter 2, God’s messenger came to Poking to remind the Israelis. God leaded the Israelis to get out of Egypt to go to the promise land and not abolish the covenant made with the Israelites. Regrettably, the Israelites deserted God, and the repeated belief cycle model was staged in the era of the judges. When the Judge were alive the Israelites will serve God but once Judge died Gentiles arose, and the Israelites abandoned the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. Instead, they served the Baals, worshiped other gods, and aroused God's anger. In the end, the angry God handed them to the enemy, and the extremely painful Israelites cried out to God because of being oppressed. God raised up judges to save them from the enemy's hand. And after they were comfortable, they abandon God again.

The Israelites experienced seven rises and falls during the time of the judges. "Stubborn and rebellious" should be enough to describe the Israelis at that time. In contrast, today, in such apocalyptic generations, has there ever been such a vicious circle in your daily life? There are too many temptations and temptations to induce us to sin. This reminds me of the prayer at the end of the meeting. Sometimes preacher led the congregation to recite the Lord’s Prayer together. It turns out that in the Lord’s Prayer, it is so important to pray to God, "Do not let us meet temptations, and save us from evil."

The words in the Bible let us understand God's commandments and let us remember the lessons of the past. As a believer, you must not follow the example of the Israelites: other generations that arise, do not know the Lord, and do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord to serve the Baals. We have the responsibility of educating the next generation to know God, love God, and obey God. It is only after becoming a mother that I understand the difficulties of parents. I hope that what I can leave to my children is the beautiful faith that can accompany them in their long lives, and I also hope that they can hold on to the hand of God.

 (Deuteronomy 28:1-8) 1 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 "The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

How can such a beautiful and good promise and agreement not be left to the next generation!

Translated by 余姿瑩

Judges 1

(Judges 1:1) 1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, "Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?"

After Joshua’s death, Israel people still ask for God and God replied to those people’s question. In the end of Joshua, it talked about that the Israel people made an agreement to serve God only. When Joshua and elders who know God were still alive, the Israel serve God (Joshua 24:31). Israel people are ready to receive the promise of land’s grace. However, after they live in the Cannan. Their sprit life disappears and were no longer devoted to faith. After Joshua and elders died, the Israel leadership was in a vacuum and plunged into anarchy. Israel people cannot enjoy a free and prosperous life, but enter the dark age of national history.

(Judges 1:21) But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

(Judges 1:27) However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.

(Judges 1:29) Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; so the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.

(Judges 1:30) Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites dwelt among them, and were put under tribute.

(Judges 1:31) Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob.

(Judges 1:33) Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were put under tribute to them.

In the next few short verses, the conversation began to change, describing that most of the tribes did not implement Joshua’s will which is to drive out the residents of that place (Joshua 23:5). Incomplete removal of evil often leads to tragic endings. We must be careful not to compromise with evil.  Judges talked about the crimes committed by the people of Israel, and the consequences of their crimes. No matter how light the crime is, it will affect everyone. Starting from Achan’s love for fine clothes and gold and silver and now they have not driven out the local residents. All fell into sin; simply put, the reason for the rapid decline in the spirituality of the Israelites was sin---the sin of the individual, the sin of the nation. Unwilling to completely obey God, unwilling to annihilate the local enemies, and later even intermarried with the locals and worshipped idols, each did whatever they wanted.

Soon after, the people of Israel oppressed by enemy. They seek God in pain. Because of compassion and love for the people, judges were raised to save them, and the Israelites enjoyed peace. But they healed their scars and forgot to hurt them, disobeyed God, and started another cycle. Reading the Judges, in addition to understanding the heroic deeds of the judges, we should also pay attention to their process of relying on God and their obedience to God's commands.

(Joshua 3:6) Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

Translated by 余姿瑩