Difficult Choices

I have been studying on Gideon in recent days as part of a larger study around the concept of Original Design. As I read through the early chapters in the Book of Judges to gain understanding of the background leading up to Gideon, some information regarding the Tribe of Manasseh caught my eye. Remember, Gideon was from the Tribe of Manasseh.

The nation of Israel was clearly instructed by God to drive the people from the land. A very politically incorrect concept for us to consider today…but God made it clear there would be severe consequences if they did not obey because it would eventually lead to the people of Israel turning from Jehovah to follow the gods of the people of that land.

The Tribe of Manasseh in particular did not drive the Canaanites from the land they were given. In Judges 1:27-28, the Word says the Canaanites persisted in remaining in the land. It goes on to say that when Israel became strong they put the Canaanites into forced labor. Think about this a moment…Israel is strong enough to put the people into forced labor but not drive them from the Land?

As I considered what the factors may have been, I was reminded that God warned Israel that the sons of Israel were not to intermarry nor were their daughters to be given in marriage to the Canaanites.

My assumption here…..and I emphasize its only an assumption, is that it became “inconvenient” for the Israelites to drive the Canaanites from the land once Israel became strong. Said another way, it became inconvenient to obey the Lord. For whatever reason, perhaps economically (since they had this labor force they could exploit to their benefit), perhaps socially due to intermarriage, perhaps other reasons someone would like to offer up here, decisions were made and it now became inconvenient to walk in obedience to the Lord’s commands.

It led me to consider that disobedience is costly because it creates difficult choices the Lord never intended for us to have to make. Exerting our will over the Lord’s never leads to good outcomes, but I believe there are times when going our own way can lead us to crossroads which require incredibly difficult choices.

Abraham took matters into his own hands when the Lord promised him he would have a son. He took it upon himself to listen to Sarah (Genesis 16:2) rather than to listen to God, and this led to him having the son Ishmael. Reading on in this story, Abraham eventually came to a place where an incredibly difficult choice had to be made. In Genesis 21, through distress, Abraham had to send Ishmael and his mother away. We have no idea how history would have turned out had Abraham not made that choice.

So this morning, I simply share what I have been pondering regarding the idea that disobedience will lead us to difficult choices God never intended for us to have to face…and then, we will be faced with another opportunity to obey at that point or again go our own way.