What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 54

The Natural Man Receiveth Not the Things of the Spirit (continued)

Occupy the Land (continued)

So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, "I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not." Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites ... and they were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord ...(Judges 2:20-23; 3:1-4).

The Philistines had changed their tactics since Abraham's time, they now made open war with the children of Israel and put them in bondage whenever possible. Remember, the Philistines represent that which is antichrist, and they could only overcome God's people when the Lord's people allowed the natural man to govern their lives. Judges 10:6 tells us that because Israel did evil again, "the evil" of idolatry, the Lord delivered them into the bondage of the Philistines.

Nevertheless, let us always remember that God is faithful; and He is always working all things after the counsel of His Own Will. Therefore, He would use the Philistines to teach His people how they must make war; and as they learned how to make war, the Philistines and their antichrist activities would be subdued, which means the Philistines would not only be defeated, but they would be vanquished: - they would be made to bow the knee to God's King, they would be humiliated, they would be brought down low, they would unwillingly be brought into subjection to God's King. Beloved, this points to the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Christ. It is because of the Cross that satan and all his host have been forever vanquished. They are under the feet of Christ, they are the unwilling footstool of the King of kings (Ephesians 1:20-23).

We know that God's people as a whole have never learned to to make war, they have never learned to walk in the good of all that Christ Is, and of All that He Accomplished. This was true right up to the present time; but God has always had those who became overcomers. So in Judges, and in 1 and 2 Samuel, the Lord would use Samson and Hannah and Samuel and David and David's mighty men in this great conflict against the Philistines.

God had said that each generation must learn to make war against His enemies; but in this case,a generation to God does not necessarily mean the literal father to child succession. No, a generation to God are those who are His own, those born of the Spirit. And Samson along with the others, we just mentioned, would become the generation of their time who learned to make war.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 55 - "Samson Shall begin to Deliver Israel Out of the Hand of the Philistines")