Every generation of God’s people must be tested. This is one of the themes of the book of Judges. No matter how hard a generation tries, God will leave some struggles for them [Jdg 3:1-2].
God created light and darkness, good and evil. They are all tools in his hands to use for His purposes [Isa 45:7]. In Judges, He used some of them to teach war to the generations of Israel that didn’t know war.
God reserve hail and snow for the day of battle [Job 38:23].
God uses pestilence and plague as weapons [Hab 3:3-5].
This does not mean God does moral evil, or that God is evil.
God uses them as tools to do His will, but his will is good, and even then, He takes no pleasure in bringing evil on men, just as sane parents do not take pleasure in bringing discipline to their children.
King Solomon married his wives for political reasons [1Kgs 11:3].
His marriages to the numerous princesses was a foreshadowing of what Jesus will do when He joins Himself to – not only Israel – but to the nations of the Gentiles as well.
The only difference being, Jesus will not fail as Solomon did by worshipping the gods of his wives.
God tore the Kingdom from Solomon by the tearing of the garment of the Prophet Ahijah [1Kgs 11:28-33], just as God caused the kingdom to be torn from Saul, by the tearing of the Prophet Samuel’s garment [1Sam 15:27-28].
God told Jeroboam exactly why He was taking away most of the kingdom from Solomon. He was taking it away for idolatry [1Kgs 11:33]. Unfortunately, Jeroboam did the same thing when he became king [1Kgs 12:25-33].
Men have foolishness in their hearts, and discipline will drive it out [Pro 22:15].
God left the foreign peoples around Israel, to see whether they would choose them, or choose Him [Jdg 3:3-4].
God intentionally leaves some temptations around to see whether or not we would choose Him.
God chooses people based on their hearts.
God chose Matthias as Judas’ replacement because of his heart [Act 1:24].
Therefore, He must have chosen the other apostles based on their hearts.
He chose David also based on David’s heart [1Sam 13:14]
He chose Moses because Moses was the meekest of men on earth [Num 12:3].
The Bible does not speak well of very fat people [Jdg 3:17; 1Sam 4:18].
Scriptures speak disapprovingly of Eli and his sons getting fat off the sacrifices of God’s people.
One of the problems with being fat is that it is caused by gluttony – which is idolatry [Php 3:19] – and because it causes slothfulness – against which the scriptures testify [Pro 18:9; 21:25].
Deborah was judge over Israel, which seems out of place. God is not known to let women lead His people [Isa 3:2; 1Cor 14:34-35; 1Tim 2:11-13]. This happened because the men at that time were slack. Barak himself was weak and would not go to
war unless a woman went with him, therefore, because he did so, God gave the victory to a woman.
It must follow that God called Deborah, because the men of her day – including her husband – did not obey the call.
God lured Sisera to the banks of the Kishon River, where his iron chariots would count for nothing, and the river drowned his men [Jdg 4:2-3,7,13; 5:21].
Sisera fled on foot [Jdg 4:17], despite having iron chariots, [Jdg 4:2] further showing that God lured them to a place where their chariots would be ineffective.
The instruction was that God would deliver Sisera into the hands of the children of Israel on that day, [Jdg 4:14]