Landmines after Victory
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Judges 8:1-21 .
“Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle.” - Scottish Presbyterian Pastor Andrew Bonar
According to the June 25, 1993 issue of Pulse:
56 nations still had serious problems with landmines
Angola - 20 million mines
Afghanistan - 10 million landmines
Cambodia - 4.5 million landmines
The wars may be over, but the dangers have not vanished. What about today? Any landmines in our country and culture?
According to The Decibel with Dave McGinn, of the Globe and Mail, March 25, 2024 - Canada has a major issue with child poverty. The child poverty rate in Canada is 40% 44% of children in poverty now grow up in a single parent home (UNICEF). 8% in duel parent families. As of today, 1 out of 5 children are raised in a single parent home, that equates to 1 million children. In 2021 that number was 1.5 million children. In 1976 that number was 289,000. Why has child poverty become as pervasive as it has? God no longer rules the land, He is, nor has, been on the throne in Canada for a very long time. The removal started in the at the Garden, but child poverty became pervasive after WW2 and the 1960’s. Divorce laws in Canada were relaxed in the 1970’s and then in the 1980’s a divorce became fairly easy to attain. Victory had been won! The shackles of God’s institution of marriage and the church were defeated, but what landmines were now scattered throughout the land. The Economic landmine - a single parents income is typically, on average 1/3 of that of a duel parent family ($43,333 compared to $130000). The Social landmine - the social stigma of single parents is still seen as a moral failure (even though in a lot of cases it is not, but for safety reasons). The Mental landmine - the single parent feels a failure or lesser because they are not a picture of the “Nuclear Family”. Single mothers and fathers are 2x and 3x times more likely to suffer depression than a married man or woman. The Moral & Ethical landmine - some single parents did not choose to be in the single parent situation. Is there a moral obligation for others to help? The Government landmine - Should the government form more policies, revise policies, around single parent families?
What does God have to say about family? Children?
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.
One man and one woman equals one flesh. A man and a man, a woman and a woman is not one flesh; but two, not one.
God made a helper fit for a man…that being a woman. God says that any joining otherwise in unfit, an abomination according to God (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Jude 1:7; Rom 1:26-28). The Kingdom of God is only inherited by married couples that are one man and one wife in Christ (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
God said it is not good for man to be alone. A “good fit” enables humanity to populate the earth and fill it! The command of God in the Book of Genesis. A woman is the “right fit” for a man because she was taken from man and when they come together they become “one flesh” meaning complete (Gen 2:22-24). But such married couples, God says, “will have trouble in this life” (1 Cor. 7:28). Why? Because their loyalty is divided between God and the concerns of themselves and family (1 Cor 7:32-35). We become “distracted” about the things of the world, instead of the things of God. That is not to say, single people do not get distracted by the world, and are more dedicated to God, but they do have more time seemingly, in the Apostle Paul’s observation.
Thus, why would it be any different for a single parent? More than likely worse, because one no longer has a spouse to help with the various roles and responsibilities. Children suffer because they have an incomplete home, incomplete or insufficient parental structure. Distracted parents from the things and concerns of God. Divided loyalty. To be alone, raising a child, is not God’s original plan, not a good fit. But God does not abandon the single parent, or the child of a single parent, as Jesus says, “I will not abandon you who are faithful to Me”. Psalm 94:14
For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
As man abandoned the way of God, God provided Jesus to persuade man, empower man, and enable man to be redeemed and live with God, and in His ways, and to receive the blessings of God, in doing so. These landmines we see today are man-made landmines, a result of man deciding to go his or her own way; refusing to acknowledge God and His ways.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Was man watchful after their supposed victory, over God, in the realm of marriage and divorce, worshiping and glorifying their own thinking and ideas of family and marriage relationships? No…man did not see the landmines that they laid out before themselves, by refusing to follow God. Landmines are still active, and remain active, after war.
Gideon and the Landmines
1. Dealing with Criticism (8:1-3)
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
Are we tempted to conquer a city? Is it worth it? Is the cost, the fallout worth it? The shame? What would Jesus do?
The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.
Mighty men and women are those who rule over their spirits, and are not ruled by their spirits.
2. To Do Nothing is to Serve the Enemy (8:4-17)
Hospitality is a Biblical law that demands one meet the needs of strangers and relatives.
Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Helping a stranger or a brother is helping the Lord Jesus.
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
To not be hospitaible is to invite the discipline and correction of the LORD. It is one of the marks of a disciple of the LORD Jesus; walking in His ways and will, modeling love practically.
One’s lack of hospitality and hard heartedness leads to the success of the Enemy in conviencing the world that God’s people are not different than Satan’s and why should one entertain the way of Jesus and His Kingdom.
A lack of hospitality is a Sin of Omission - failing to do what is right or failing to do as instructed by God.
3. Watch out for Flattery! (Judges 8:18-21)
Flattery is praising another for the purpose of gaining favor or influence.
4. Worship no other King (Judges 8:22-32)
How do we live with honor in our lives today?
Honor is esteem due, reverence, veneration, exalted in rank or place, distinction, giving dignity. Do we give dignity to God and His commands? His ways? His creation?