Take Your Positions in Battle
When the king of Egypt let the people go, God did not take them by the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way. God thought, “I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight.” Instead, he led them in a roundabout way through the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites were armed for battle ~ Exodus 13:17-18 GNT
Israel had a God given promise to possess the land of Canaan. One thing you must understand is that whatever God promises you, it must surely come to pass, for God is faithful and He cannot lie, but its manifestation in your life will demand your participation. God had promised, through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that their descendants would settle in a land full of milk and honey and He was determined to fulfil that promise. He took the responsibility of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and the Bible records that He kept watch to ensure that they were out of Egypt. And they did.
Now, we are told in the above scripture that He did not take them through a shorter route because He thought that these people were going to change their minds and return to Egypt once they realized that war awaited them. This means that the longer route was for the preparation of their hearts and minds. Remember they had been in the land of Egypt all their lives and they didn’t know who their God really was. This was why, when He came to Moses, He had to introduce Himself and even gave Moses a name that would make Him known to the children of Israel. For them to really come to know who God was, how He worked and understand His ways, He had to be the one to teach them. And the perfect place for this was in the wilderness. Moses took note of it in the book of Deuteronomy when he said;
He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the Lord says ~ Deuteronomy 8:3 GNT
And so one of the things He taught or wanted his children to learn in the wilderness was to depend on Him. They had to know how to totally depend on God for whatever they needed. He provided food for them and in all these forty years, their clothes never wore out and their feet did not swell. This means that He sustained them for forty years. He took care of them and preserved them. The next thing that he introduced to them was warfare. In the land of Egypt, they watched God fight for them. They did not come out of Egypt by engaging the enemy, in fact, they did not even lift a finger.
Next in line was the red sea immediately after they left Egypt. Even though their enemy was fast approaching, these people did not fight him. Only God and Moses participated and they enjoyed the victory. They should have been wise to know that they were dealing with a God of war. They should also have known that they had an enemy to deal with and soon enough, they will have to know how to engage him in battle.
God was on a mission to raise an army that would fight His battles in Canaan. This was a land that was very rich and fertile. It was also very fruitful and full of milk and honey, yet it was occupied by heathens and idolaters. It was also full of evil altars and other practices that were not acceptable before the Lord. He wanted this army to go over to Canaan, possess this land and occupy it. He wanted them to go and introduce the heavenly culture in Canaan. They, in essence, were supposed to enter Canaan and dominate it with the laws of the true God. He would in turn dwell among them, bless them and accomplish His divine plans and purposes through them. This, of course, was not going to be a peaceful settlement, but a battle.
The angel of the Lord went from Gilgal to Bochim and said to the Israelites, “I took you out of Egypt and brought you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. You must not make any covenant with the people who live in this land. You must tear down their altars.’ But you have not done what I told you. You have done just the opposite! ~ Judges 2:1-2 GNT
Israel entered the land and failed to do what God had commanded them to. The instructions of God as given through Moses was for them to tear down their altars, break their stone pillars in pieces, cut down the symbols of Asherah and burn their idols. But they never did. Instead they mingled with those foreigners and allowed them to continue living among them. But this became a snare.
To be continued.
