Losing Ground

June 29

Read: Judges 3:12-30

Ehud (1 of 3)

“Losing Ground”

“He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms.” (v.13)

Have you ever felt like you were losing ground instead of gaining it? To me, this is one of the most frustrating things - to have had victory in an area only to lose ground later and find yourself defeated again. We may not recognize it at first, but “the city of palms' ' is a city also known as Jericho. Imagine how defeating it must have been to lose the city of Jericho in a military take over by a foreign king. This city presented a place where God had shown up and brought victory for his people under Joshua. Now that city is taken over again.

What is God’s demeanor towards his people when this happens? What may be interesting to note is that this take over was actually orchestrated by the Lord: “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” (v.12) It was the Lord who strengthened this foreign king. Sometimes it is the “sting” of “losing ground” that turns us back to the Lord. It took Israel 18 years to remember this lesson! (v.14)

When the people of God finally call out to him, what does he do? He responds. He shows up. Despite neglecting him for 18 years… as soon as the call out to him he begins the work of raising them up. We should feel discouraged when we lose ground… it is no good to “do evil in the eyes of the Lord”. Yet, even when we find ourselves “losing” in a place where we had experienced victory before we can still have hope.

God restores “lost ground”. God is willing to bring victory again. God is willing to fight for us and with us again and again… even if it is a common battle. When we lose the proverbial “city of palms” - may we be quick to turn to the Lord. The enemy will tell us that God is angry at us for this. It may just be that God ORCHESTRATED it as an opportunity to turn you back to him and to allow you to see him work again. Remember, for this generation in the narrative, the battle of Jericho was history… a story… a fireside tail. God was about to give them their own front row seat to him fighting for his people again. This generation would have it’s OWN battle of Jericho now. God is doing new things each generation… even if it means fighting old battles again! What is your Jericho? Love you guys. - JDP