When trials and tests come into our lives, Satan will always put an exit ramp for us to get out to the trial and fulfill our flesh. We will see Israel having this same problem in Judges 2:16-23.

If there is one thing that the Church today and the nation of Israel have in common it is a lack of discipline the following generations. We see the problems caused and look at how we can address these issues.

Israel has fallen into sin and God tells them He is refusing to move on their behalf. It causes Israel to weep, but not repent. Why? Because they weren’t convicted about their sin—they were bothered they got caught.

The nation of Israel neglected to push out the sinful nations from around them because they didn’t see them as a threat. They became comfortable with sin and allowed that sin to entangle them. We have the same problem today in our lives, churches, and culture. We don’t really know what sin is and it is causing many people to not see sin as a threat.

As we begin the Book of Judges, what we find is the nation of Israel, and the tribe of Judah, beginning a downward spiral of accepting less than what God has for them. This will have an effect through the entire Book.

Joshua challenges the people of Israel to stay focused on being surrendered to the Lord. He did this knowing the enemy was going to try to make them comfortable after God allowed them to enter the Promised Land.

Due to a lack of praying to God, Joshua leads the people into a treaty after being deceived. This shows the importance of taking all our decisions to the Lord in prayer.

Too many times we think that certain temptations Satan offers in front of us are blessings from God when they are temptations to lead us to fall into sin. We see this with the story of Achan in Joshua 6-7.

Too often we try to fight the battles and we get overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to fight the battle. God has given us the victory and wants to fight the battle. All our job is to worship Him and watch Him do what only He can do.

What we find before Joshua goes to battle is that He and Jesus will spend a very important time together. What we learn from this is Jesus wants us to spend time time with Him, not distracted, not busy, but with Him to hear His heart for us.