God Gives the Victory

In Judges 10:11, God asks a question. In the first half of the question, He names seven nations that He had given the children of Israel victory over: Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites. The question is rhetorical. He expects a certain answer. He says did I not give victory over those seven nations. Of course I did is the obvious answer. The questions that God asks are very revealing. He certainly does not need answers from us. He already knows the answers. The questions are for the benefit of those He asks. Answering a question from the Lord will cause one to do a lot of soul searching. We can learn much by paying attention to the questions He posed to others in the Scriptures, saving ourselves a lot of personal soul searching and lessons learned the hard way.

Numerals are significant to the Hebrews. The number seven indicated completion or possibly even perfection. Looking back a few verses to verse 6, we see that God's people were guilty of worshipping seven false gods. Note again the number seven. God's gift of complete and perfect victory had been met with complete and perfect disobedience by His people. Even though He had given them complete victory over everything, His people voluntarily subjected their own selves to live in complete defeat under the dominion of false gods. God responded to them by saying, "Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!" Judges 10:14 NIV

You and I do exactly the same thing. We live in defeat. We live in submission to the same old sins. We give in to the same old temptations time after time. We allow ourselves to be enslaved by false gods whatever they might be: work, drugs, our children, alcohol, possessions, hobbies, etc. There will come a time when enough will be enough. God will at some point respond to us the same way He did to His chosen people in the Old Testament. He will tell us to go right ahead and cry out to the gods we have chosen and let them save us. Of course they cannot save us and they will never be able to save us, but amazingly you and I continue to run to them anyway. Misery is our lot when we submit ourselves to false gods. It does not have to be this way. God says to us, "Did I not save you?" He did and we trusted Him for our salvation. Why is it so difficult to trust Him for victory over sin? We trust Him with our death. We should also trust Him with our life. The God who saves us can also provide complete victory over sin. He has already given victory. Please, do not voluntarily submit to defeat, there is a better way. God has already saved you. God has already provided victory. Let us live like we believe it. A victory is a terrible thing to waste.