The concept of God as a ‘man of war’ might offend some people who love to see Him only as a ‘God of love’. These are the so-called sages who pretend to know more about God than His holy prophets who wrote the books of the Bible. For those who are still confused about this aspect of the character of God, it is pertinent to note that several Scriptures in the Bible refer to Him as the LORD God of hosts. Heavenly hosts refer to the army of angels. He is their Commander-in-Chief! Exodus 15:3 declares, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name.” Today, we are interviewing one of those used by God to deliver Israel from external forces during the reign of Judges. His name is Ehud, the son of Gera.
Shepherd Heart: Thank you for honouring our invitation Sir.
Ehud: The pleasure is mine.
Shepherd Heart: Kindly tell our readers about yourself.
Ehud: I am of the tribe of Benjamin. By His grace, God used me to deliver Israel from 18 years of oppression by the Moabites.
Shepherd Heart: Give us an idea of what life was like in Israel under the reign of the Moabite king, Eglon whom you eventually eliminated.
Ehud: There is nothing pleasant about being a slave. That was what we were to the Moabites. They plundered our resources, especially our crops and domestic animals; we were constantly at their mercy. Despite their frequent raids on our communities, they still compelled us to pay tribute to them. It was literally living in hell on earth.
Shepherd Heart: Sometimes when I read the Old Testament, especially Exodus and Deuteronomy, I am at lost as to how Israel fell into idolatry so soon after the great deliverance from Egypt. What was the catalyst for the fall from grace to grass?
Ehud: My people forgot God too soon. That was our greatest undoing. We also presumed on the mercy of God just like what your generation is doing.
Shepherd Heart: Yeah. That is why some people are propagating the falsehood, that God’s love is unconditional and that there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more or less. They readily ignore the fact that He created humans with a free will. Even the popular John 3:16 expresses some form of conditionality in our relationship with God as it pertains to the salvation that is through Yeshua alone. It says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” God expressed His love by sacrificing His Son, but we cannot benefit from that transaction except we believe that Yeshua died in our place; and move from there to appropriate this sacrifice by repenting of our sins. God cannot do the believing for us. He cannot repent on our behalf. In a sense, we are accountable for our actions, and salvation is not wholesale, otherwise no one would end up in hell.
Ehud: That is correct. Israel found out about its own wrong perception of the mercy of God in a hard way. I am sure that things would have turned out differently if we had believed the prophesy Moses gave shortly before his death. He did warn us that God would punish us and scatter us across the nations if we imbibed the ungodly cultures of the nations around us.
Shepherd Heart: The same order of unbelief pervades our generation. The entire counsel of God from the death and resurrection of Yeshua to the judgment of evil is clearly articulated in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation; yet, many people care less about their fate. It is difficult to believe that the entire Israeli population in your time turned against God. Were there not at least some who feared the LORD and prayed for His intervention in the situation with the Moabites?
Ehud: God has never left Himself without a witness. Indeed, there were some God-fearing people in our communities. The question was not about their fidelity: but how the ungodly acts of the majority affected everyone. I am sure that you remember how the Israeli army was disgraced at Ai because of the sin of just one man, Achan. God’s desire was for all Israel to worship Him alone; that was the thrust of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Shepherd Heart: Reading through the book of Judges, one thing is clear. The children of Israel obeyed God only when there was a godly leadership. When the few godly Judges left the scene through death, they returned to idolatry. What was the major attraction in their worship of these strange gods?
Ehud: Man, by his disposition, is a control freak. He loves to be in charge and anyone who gives him that false sense of security becomes his god. You and I know that Almighty God is in a class of His own. No one can control Him. Our prayers, fasting and other sacrifices cannot influence Him. Ephesians chapter one verse eleven tells us that God does all things according to the counsel of His own will. Because people are not able to have their way with Him, they turn to other ‘gods’ who pretend to gratify such desires. The gods worshipped by neighbouring nations were many and varied according to what they stood for. There were gods of fertility; gods of protection; gods of wisdom and so forth. These could be easily entreated with sacrifices, unlike Almighty God who would only answer the petitioners at His own time. This was the main reason Israelis embraced idolatry.
Shepherd Heart: This sounds uncannily like what we are experiencing in our generation. We also have our many gods – alcohol, hard drugs, greed and self-centredness. Some people have also embraced demons who parade as angels of light through false doctrines circulating in Christendom. Right now, many people are not satisfied with the Bible, nor do they accord it due respect as the word of God. Many Christians have developed itchy ears and have opened themselves up to pollution by demons. What advice do you have for believers along these lines?
Ehud: Satan is a master trickster. He has had eon years to perfect his trade. The only Personality he cannot trifle with is the Holy Spirit. That is why he is fighting tooth and nail to cause believers to reject operations of the Holy Spirit. Satan knows that the church is dead without the influence of the Holy Spirit. The letter of the word alone does not overcomes the devil and his demons. It is the Spirit-empowered word that dethrones satan from the hearts of men. My candid advice therefore is that the church should return to the basis. It should allow the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus sent Him to the earth for- a total overthrow of the kingdom of darkness in the hearts of men: to usher in the Kingdom of God. Evangelism without the Holy Spirit is a useless exercise because no soul can be converted without His intervention through the process of conviction.
Shepherd Heart: Thank you very much for your contributions Sir.
Ehud: Thanks for having me.