What the Book of Judges Teaches Us About Our Health Battles

When God sent His Israelite people into the promised land of Canaan they had to fight literal battles which were also battles of faith. In various ways – determined beforehand by God – God delivered their enemies over to them. In some battles, God told the Israelites not to fight, to stand still and have faith and see God fight for them. At the battle of Jericho – their very first battle – God had them march around the city for 7 days and blow trumpets, and God miraculously crumbled the walls down before their eyes. They then ran into the city and captured it, putting to death everyone except Rabah and her family who had come onto the Lord’s side. There are many spiritual lessons to be learned in these battles, which apply to all different difficulties we face today in life and in ministry as we go forward to serve the Lord and accomplish His will as a church.

I spent some time recently reading in the book of Judges.

The generation that came after these great battles of faith had been won did not know or understand the science of war. They didn’t know how to fight. So what did God do? Well He did something you might not expect an almighty, always victorious God to do: He left some heathen tribes so that the new generation would have to fight them and learn the science of war. Why would a God that could certainly give them the victory and set them up for peace, do that? Some have a hard time understanding why an almighty God would ask His people to fight at all, when He could do it for them.

The truth is we do actually have a very real role to play as God’s witnesses and representatives on the earth. This is not an imaginary or made up role. It’s not ceremonial or just for show where nothing is really required of us and no real sacrifice needs to be made on our part.

This Bible fact got me thinking. How often in our health journey do we not get completely well and there’s some residual symptoms, particularly with those with psychotic disorders. And we may not understand why, and sometimes there’s even misplaced pressure by others that if we aren’t 100% well that we aren’t committed enough to health, even though we’re doing everything we can, and that we’ve somehow failed. But when we aren’t 100% better we have to rely on God for help every day to manage symptoms. We have to research more often, and try new supplements, and make additional changes to our lifestyle that are harder to make and require more commitment than if we were well. This grows us, teaches us, and leads us to part with more health and lifestyle sins.

By having residual symptoms that require more attention and knowledge, we’re drawn to our knees to pray for wisdom and help, thus by God leaving some symptoms, He teaches us the science of health and the science of war. We need to know these sciences! It’s important! It wouldn’t be enough to just have our health restored to us quickly, especially in today’s world, where toxins abound and they are only continuing to increase.

And it wouldn’t be enough for our character, which is at the heart of what God is trying to get at with all these many health trials. He wants to change our heart and this is our greatest need.

The Bible tells us God tried the Israelites in the wilderness allowing them to experience hunger and thirst, providing for their need for food and water through different means each time, in order to teach them that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Had he given them a spring or a well that always produced water, or a designated a hill where food could always be found, they wouldn’t have had to seek God Himself. They’d just rely on the well or the hill. They wouldn’t be proved and tested and brought to a place where their faith and character could grow.

So with health it is so often the case that we have pressing symptoms, such as tachycardia, and the previously-used supplements don’t work this time for whatever reason, and we have to go directly to God again – not just the supplement bottle – and ask Him what to do. Ask Him for guidance and to increase our health knowledge as we research. Ask Him for the help that only He can provide.

Those without faith in God often see life as coming from what they eat and the air they breathe, but the truth is God holds up our life every moment. This is why we’re all alive; God is infusing us with life second-by-second as we go about our day. In a very real sense we do not live by the food we eat. We really live by the power of God holding us up.

And going through health battles teaches us how true this is, and how much we need Him, not just a piece of knowledge, or a health book, or a new supplement. While He uses food to sustain us, and He blesses the supplements we use to control symptoms and regain brain function, He is still really the one sustaining us behind it all.

And that’s why even though knowledge of health is important and necessary (God wants us to know it which is why He teaches us more and more about our bodies and our pathways and the nutrients that make them work), there is no recipe or map for health. With each battle you go through God delivers you in different ways. God provides the answers through different means, according to what each person needs. For instance, if you’re someone who isn’t very perseverant, God can’t usually give you a quick recovery, because then how would you learn perseverance? Or if you are someone who doesn’t know enough about health to keep your body healthy into old age, God usually has to take time getting you well too, because otherwise you won’t learn all the vital health information He needs to teach you.

Just as the Israelites needed to learn the very real science of physical warfare as well as how to battle on their knees, so Christians of today need to learn the very real science of health, along with battles of faith. And to learn that science you must get in the trenches with it, and apply the treatments, and learn how they work. So by allowing some residual symptoms God can train us to understand our bodies.

I know that had I gotten 100% well quickly, I wouldn’t know what I know about health and I wouldn’t be as thorough in my knowledge. By having more thorough knowledge, I’ve been able to help the more severe cases get better, such as people with severe depression. There have been blessings that I’ve received and experienced from having harder health battles that I would not have experienced had I had easier battles and a quick victory.