“And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”
– Judges 3:12
This is a pretty sobering, humbling verse to think about how God’s people can presume that God is going to work for them and fight for them, when the reality is, if God’s people are doing evil, God will not be working for them. That the picture here in Judges 3:12 is God working against his people, strengthening a foreign king against his people, because his people were doing evil.
The Reality of Evil
God scattered his people from the promised land because they had done evil.
And this is a picture we see all throughout the Old Testament. When you think about God’s judgment, ultimately in the exile, God scattered his people from the promised land because they had done evil, because they had worshiped all kinds of other gods, just indulged in all sorts of idolatry and immorality.
And so, when we pray in our lives, we need to pray, yes, based on God’s promise of his love for us, his promise to be with us, to help us, but we can never disconnect claiming and resting in God’s promises toward us from obeying God’s commands to us. That if we want to experience the fullness of God’s blessing in our lives, and all that Jesus has bought for us at the cross, we by God’s grace need to walk in obedience to him. We need to flee idolatry and immorality, to flee evil.
Judges 3:12 Prays for Eyes that See and Confess Sin
And so, I just want to lead us to pray today. God help each one of us. We pray today to see, to have open eyes to see, any ways in which we are doing evil, or not honoring you, or not glorifying you. God help us to see our sin and to confess it, and to run from it, to turn from it, and to live in obedience to you, and to experience your blessing that comes with obedience.
God help us not to presume upon you, that just because we know you, you will support us and bless us in everything we do. When the reality is, you don’t support us in sin. You don’t bless us in sin.
God, we pray that you would keep us from evil. Help us to see any and every way in which we are not obeying you, not glorifying you, not honoring others, not walking in your ways.
And God help us to repent. And in repentance, by your grace, to experience your blessing. Help us not to do what is evil in your sight today. Help us to do, by your grace, what is good in your sight. And as we do, to experience your blessing in our obedience.
So God, keep us from intentional, willful, and unintentional sin, and evil idolatry and immorality. Help us to walk in obedience to you today, tomorrow, in every single detail of our lives. Help us, we pray. In Jesus’ name we pray, according to Judges 3:12, keep us from doing what is evil in your sight. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
